Stories in Stone, Capricorn's Curse
by TheDarkRabbit
Summary: A Princess who's suffered great loss and has no idea what to do now. A musician struggling with the idea her fame was made off another's skill. A mother whose life was robbed from her. A former ruler who has given up nearly everything for those who see her as a monster. A mare who is trying to find the perfect way to propose to her love. And a country, locked away in time. TDR Pre
1. Prologue

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR

I don't want to set the world on fire.  
Prologue

[Six years after the defeat of Tirek. Early Evening, West bound train from Gallopagos Island]

The click clack of the train going over the rails set a steady beat, reminding her of the underscore a friend of hers relied on for what she called music. It was also they rhythm of the simple drum line of many of her colt friends songs. Granted Jacob and Nico had retired now, although Jacob at least was still writing music. The pair of them released one last album as Pontera after the Tirek incident both decided to give up their costumes and stay in New Canterlot, both of them accepting teaching positions at the school. Jacob had made a big deal of destroying his Bloodmoon costume, happy to get rid of it. She expected that Nico kept his, Vinyl was rather fond of it.

Of course she couldn't fault Jacob for getting rid of the costume. The pair had been made prime targets mid tour because they looked like alicorns. Tirek was not amused to find the pair were only a pegasus and unicorn in elaborate costumes and not true alicorns or even pegicorns. They both were rather lucky he hadn't killed them after he took their cutie marks, though when Phillydelphia fell, Princess Luna was already starting her attack on him, so Tirek was likely distracted.

She was glad of that. Despite Jacob's evident lack of a spine when he was out of costume, she did love him, she simply wished he had more confidence in himself. Of course he had all the confidence in the world for her, something she was finding herself lacking at this point.

She sighed softly. Bleu Scale had taken over the school and had done fairly well with it, still the dragon's ventures out to start up the new city of Cindervale left the school in her own hooves most of the time. Not something she minded, but it was a rather large reminder of her own issues seeing the new prodigies start their carriers in music.

Platinum Scale, despite being centuries dead was still one of the hottest, if not the hottest, musicians in the world right now. Bleu had, with the aid of Princess Twilight Sparkle, brought back every single song the mare had ever done, including a few that were never preformed for the public. The next closest singer in every ones mind was Sweetiebelle Reignolds, and the young mare was known to sing Platinum's songs. Despite Platinum not being on the charts officially due to some loop hole or another, there was not a musician or music aficionado in all of Equss that did not know the mares name, or for that matter, her own name.

It was this sort of thing that worried her.

They knew her name because she was the first to release a song by Platinum. She was the one to start the school dedicated to Platinum. She was the one who helped launch Sweetiebelle into stardom from said school.

She was famous because of what another did, not her own skill.

Octavia hated that feeling.

No one wanted to hear her play, they all wanted to hear about the school, or what might be next from Platinum. Heck she had only been in Gallopagos to open the doors to the branch of Platinum's school of music that had opened there. She had left on the first train out a little before eleven pm. She couldn't stand it any longer than that.

Even the orchestra that she had been so proud to be a part of in the past was just a lingering reminder that it was some one elses name attached to it. She had kept in practice, of course, still carrying her cello with her where ever she went, though she hadn't joined the Platinum Swan in some time for a performance.

She had doubts, she had worries, first and for most was, if she was really that good of a musician when no one cared if she played any more. She made her name off of some one elses skill and not her own. She hated that. Was she even good enough to accept the fame that she had? She certainly didn't feel that way. Even after all this time.

Things like that had bothered her for years now. She doubted she would have any of her feelings sorted by the time she made it back to New Canterlot.

===================================================================

She hated this. She wished she had taken up the offer from Bleu to fly here. But that would not have helped. She hated Gallopagos. Not for any real reason aside from the fact this was were her moment of greatest sorrow had occurred and years were spent weeping and lashing out at any thing that came near. It was the place where close friends of hers had died. A place that was nearly destroyed and only through sacrifice and pain had been even partially saved. The place was left a graveyard by Tirek. Even now six years later bodies still washed up or were uncovered as the city was expanded. Even with her husband practicality running it, from New Canterlot of course, he still hated water, she didn't like it.

The train ride gave her far too much time to stew in her own thoughts as the red eye roared away from the city on Gallopagos island, still a days travel to go before it reached New Canterlot.

The city had a new name now, just as the half dragons had named themselves Kirin, the city had been renamed after LionHeart. His son was not taking up the name by order of his late mother Rarity. Elusive could chose to call himself by that title later in life if he wished, but for now the six year old Kirin god was simply allowed to be a foal.

That thought warmed her a little as it brought her mind to her own children.

After being put through a wall at least three more times, once by the mare he was trying to date, Hunter and Orange had married. In fact her first grand foal was on the way. That made her feel older than anything else.

Pip had joined the Guard, after Tirek. Still Jer'rahd had arraigned and set up the toughest Guard training program to date. Only half the group made it through the new program. Few had accused her husband of playing favorites after that. It was a mere formality any way, Pip had suffered his trial by fire and had come out only slightly singed. Which was more than she could say for him when he and his mare friend had a fight. Spitfires daughter took very closely after her mother. She really didn't feel the need to threaten or try to intimidate the young mare. Scootaloo would be a hard one to threaten any way.

Diamond Tiara had been a surprise in the end and Brush had been adamant that she no longer harass the poor girl. Of course Berry had then started tormenting her which caused Brush no end of frustration. He was out of school and going to a college he chose that he thought would help with his painting skills. She doubted he needed help, but she wasn't going to fight, even when she found out it was the college Diamond Tiara was attending.

Ice Berry. At times she wished her daughter had not learned to talk. At this point she never shut up any more. Being Twilight's student and recipient of one of Spike and Bleu's first eggs always gave her something to talk about. Beryl was a bit of a pain as far as baby dragons went at three years old he was into everything. Even with Twilight's assistance most of Berry's time was devoted to keeping the little dragon from burning down everything. Something both she and her husband were fond of, because it meant Berry didn't notice the plethora of colts and fillies who had taken a interest in their rapidly growing daughter. Berry had hit a growth spurt and were it not for her lack of wings she might be confused for an alicorn with her height and build.

Dawn was another matter entirely. Their second youngest daughter seemed to have gained both her parent's fearlessness, more than a hoof full of their aggression and every drop of their blind luck and stubbornness. She had also gained her father's sense of right and wrong and had gotten into at least six fights in her first year of school dealing with those she thought were bullies.

Of course being a Kirin, she was already twice the size of most fillies and colts her age and almost as dangerous as an adult. Of course after confirming that his daughter was neither the aggressor nor the bully herself, Jer'rahd was useless in trying to curtail his daughters behavior. Both Berry and Dawn could play their father like a fiddle to get nearly anything they wanted. So could Orange to a lesser degree, but the older mare at least had the decency not to. Of course Jer'rahd said that Pip and Brush did the same with her, but she disagreed.

Then there was their youngest. Although technically Rynthia was the same age as Dawn, younger by only a few days. They had adopted her after a discussion with Applejack. While neither of them wanted to separate the twins Wolf and Fox from their sister, Applejack's family had no idea how to deal with raising a god. Granted neither did Jer'rahd and Luna, but they were better equipped to deal with issues that might arise than the farmer was. Applejack and Fluttershy took in the twins and Rynthia was added to the Kaisur household. She had developed a bit of magic, though she was usually subdued. The Windigo that had come to see her wondered if she had not taken some of their essence when she was conceived and would hold the knowledge of their mother and father.

So far that did not seem the case, which she occasionally showed that she knew things that she shouldn't it didn't seem to be in the same degree as the Windigo had suspected. It may have simply been that she was very smart. She seemed to follow in Rhede's hoof prints in considering every angle before deciding any thing.

Tia claimed she was on par with Twilight at that age.

She and Dawn got along quite well and covered each others weaknesses when getting into trouble. Thankfully between their father and mother, most of their plans were consistently foiled. Although Jer'rahd let a number of harmless antics happen, simply to let the pair think they were getting something past him so they would lower their guard if they did anything dangerous. Not as if the pair couldn't worm their way out of punishment if only Jer'rahd caught them.

Then there was the stallion himself. His loyalty too her was unwavering even now. He was still reckless and violent, but that had been tempered considerably by knowing that Tirek had used the powers stolen from him to kill innocents and murder two of his best friends. He had of course responded by dragging Twilight, Bleu and Spike with him on a crusade. The group of them spent a nearly all of the first year tracking down and destroying any lost legend, hint of danger, or hidden monsters that Twilight's studies or Spike's powers could find. When he returned he seemed back to normal, though much more melancholy than he had been in a long time. No one else seemed to notice and if they did they thought it was simply something else. Prewedding jitters, post wedding worry, issues with the new tasks brought on by his rank of Guard Captain. Only Luna, Starfall, and Bleu saw the issue with him, and they were all going through it as well. It did seem to make him a bit clingy for a while, though Luna hadn't minded that.

Luna smiled despite herself with that train of thought. She had plenty of ponies that loved her. Far more than she had ever expected. Often times she simply had to bleed off the excess power of love she was absorbing or she might explode, and that was just from Jer'rahd. Funny how it took becoming a creature that feeds on love , to notice how loved you were.

The trip to Gallopagos was to hash out relations between a small group of Changelings that wished to settle one of the smaller islands to the north that was still in Kirin territory. To tell the truth there was no need for her to be there. The Kirin and the River Ponies were as accepting of the Changelings as the Crystal Empire, not fully mind you, but more so than most other races were.

While a increase in her power and the spread of what could now be called her race, was one thing, it was the rest of Equss's reaction to her now being Queen of the Changelings that caused her worry.

Despite her defeat of Tirek, her returning her sisters power to her and even giving up the power of the moon and her godhood to Twilight Sparkle, many of the races of the world thought her too dangerous to live and wanted her destroyed. They recalled Nightmare Moon, and they recalled Chrysalis. To see both combined added more worry and stress for them than they had liked.

It was not popular opinion, but it reared it's head at inopportune times making negotiations difficult.

It also annoyed and saddened her that many of them seemed not to care about what she did to stop Tirek, what she herself had lost and nearly lost in her fight against the monster. To them she was just another beast that needed to be destroyed.

The loudest voices were of coursed silenced, both by Tia's diplomatic efforts, Twilight's logic, and the fact that Jer'rahd broke a full grown dragon's jaw with a punch when the ambassador was dumb enough to voice his opinion about Luna while within Jer'rahd's earshot.

Even with the protests quelled, the fear distrust and outright hatred was still easily tasted by Luna. And it wasn't just nobles and ambassadors. She had taken to disguising herself anytime she was to be seen in public to avoid the fear that seemed to pop up with nearly everyone when she was around.

After all she had done, she was still forced to live in a world that still hated and feared her.

====================================================

She didn't know why she accepted the ticket. She hated trains, they were so noisy and loud. While she wasn't one to argue against noise and some volume, there was no showmanship to a train, no flair or spark that was in the slightest bit interesting. It followed a rail and never left it as it simply went from place to place unless there was a problem.

She liked the idea of travel. It was something she sorely missed every day. Being stuck in one place was never something she wanted. She loved the open road sleeping some where new every night going where ever your hooves guided you. It was the perfect life for her.

Granted it was hard to make friends like that. And since she had become stationary she had made several. Cheerilee, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie of course, you can't live in New Canterlot without that pink menace trying to become your friend and not leaving you alone until she was. Heck she had even made amends with Twilight Sparkle and was at least tolerated by AppleJack. She still couldn't stand Rainbow Dash however and the feeling was mutual. Two showy ponies in one place always ended in a one up contest.

She didn't mind staying in Golden Oaks library. There were plenty of books she had never read and she still put on the occasional show when she was able, usually for some event or another. So there wasn't much she was missing.

She just wished it had been her choice to stop traveling and settle down.

Claymore had taken that away from her. Even though she had gotten her revenge on him and destroyed the Troll he had become so utterly that barely a smear of his blood remained, he had ruined her life as it had been completely.

She loved Trevor dearly and did not regret his birth, but because of it she had been forced to give up her life as it was. A pregnant mare couldn't be on the road pulling a cart. A new mother couldn't take the foal on the road when there was no guarantee money would come from a performance. A mother of a young foal couldn't take him on the road, the colt needed schooling in a proper facility.

It was always something that kept her in one place and made her accept New Canterlot as a home despite her wanderlust. Even now she could feel it. The call of the road. Trevor was with his grandmother, visiting her in Gallopagos. Trixie had gone with the cheapest rates and was now on the red eye back to New Canterlot. Trevor would stay there for two weeks before taking his first train ride alone back home. He was fifteen now being born a year after what many called the War of Gods. Still Trixie couldn't help but be amazed by him. She and others had been worried that as he grew older he might trigger memories of Claymore in Trixie if he resembled his father. Thankfully he didn't have any trace of his father in him, save perhaps broader shoulders. Trevor was a wiz in magic as well taking fully after his mother. He had even been accepted into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. When he hatched the dragons egg was possibly the proudest moment in her life. The egg had been one of the old ones too, Bleu Scale had donated her first clutch to the school but there had been a small number of eggs left from the War of Night a thousand years ago. Trevor had hatched one of them, thus matching Twilight Sparkle's skill at his age without having a surge to do it.

Trixie was quite proud of her son.

Though the road still called her.

=====================================================

Bored.  
Bored. Bored.  
Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

She was bored.

She hated trains, they took too long, why were they called trains any way? They should have been called rail runners. Locomotive was dumb too. Did they run on Chaos? Was that the loco part? What did that mean any way? The buffalo called them iron horses. Why did they call trains iron horses and not the Guards covered in iron? Maybe trains were named after the trains that trailed after brides at weddings. Why would they do that, they weren't even similar? Wait wedding? Oh crap.

Lyra dropped her head back bouncing it off the seat behind her as she stared at the ceiling of the thundering train car. The train was pretty much empty this late at night. She had seen maybe two others aside from herself and Octavia. Granted the gray mare was the reason she was out here any way. Lyra had been selected to preform at the new Platinum's Music School opening in Lionheart city. While the rest of the Platinum Swan had stayed over for a few days, she and Octavia had left as soon as possible. Octavia for some reason she wouldn't say and Lyra because she had been missing Bon Bon the whole time.

That was the crux of why she was headed back. Bon Bon expected her in two or three days, Lyra wanted to surprise her.

The lime colored mare's horn glowed as she pulled a felt covered box from her instrument case, setting it on her lap before flipping it open and looking down at it's contents.

It was a simple hoof ring. Nothing fancy, just one pink diamond chip along side a pair of amethyst slivers and a bit of jade.

It really wasn't that expensive, though her mare friend would have yelled at her if she thought Lyra was spending too much money on something. Bon Bon was already fussing when a good portion of Lyra's Guard hazard pay for the Tirek invasion went missing. She had explained it away some how, but really she had bought this. Of course that was five years ago.

Lyra had spent the last five years trying to find an original and decent way to propose to Bon Bon. Hot air balloon, picnic lunch. She had wanted something no pony had done before and everything she could think of some one else had done.

It had been five years, she had been thinking of ideas the whole time and she still didn't have anything yet that was new.

===================================================

She never asked for this.

It had been a wonderful gesture given her and Celestia's situation and in truth it was a perfect political move as well. Princess Luna... Queen Luna, had never been very popular with the populace, nor with other nations. She didn't like negotiations, thought most treaties were boring and barely had more patience than Jer'rahd when it came to nobles.

When it was a military situation however there were few if any ponies better, and she was married to one at least on par with her, was sister to another, had been friends with three others and her eldest son was yet another.

To be honest the whole Kaisur family was down right scary. Twilight had often made use of that. Jer'rahd had taken over for Hospice Moskau as Guard Captain of the six Sixty Sixth monster hunters, as well as keeping his job as the head of the 42nd training division and shock troops. Something he was not fond of which made it more amusing, particularly since he was also forced to look after the newly renamed Blue Blood family.

Peach Blossom had taken over for her brother when he moved to the Crystal Empire full time. The pony was level headed and had a decent enough sense of humor. He was also one of the few others that Jer'rahd actually listened to. Starfall Silvertail took over for Nicker Fury and for the first time had a rank slightly above Jer'rahd, something that caused her no end of annoyance and amusement.

The choice to do this was a smart one. Starfall and Peach Blossom could keep Jer'rahd in line better than Celestia or herself ever could. Luna didn't even try, she actually egged him on a bit which caused no end of trouble to the negotiations with the Yaks, though she had to admit it was quite helpful in dealing with that meglomanical mare who had been stealing cutie marks in the name of unity. The doctors said the mare might walk again some day with a bit of assistance.

Granted it was Starlight Glimmer's own fault that she had tried to take every ponies cutie marks by force when coercion hadn't worked. And it really was some horrid luck for the mare that Twilight had brought Ice Berry along with her along with the small company of Guard. Reports from the scouts made it seem like the town was just suffering some after affects of Tirek. Twilight didn't think there was a cult to the monster. Well a cult leader, and a bunch of confused ponies.

The incident cemented home a number of things for her.

She was not prepared to be a Princess, no matter how much Queen Luna and Princess Celestia had been training her.

And she was still in no shape to be trying to protect any one. She had tried before and failed. She trained and tried to save some one again and failed, only this time her failure cost one of her best friends and her husband their lives. Because she couldn't stop Tirek in Gallopagos countless numbers died, because she failed to plan for every option and ran in like Rainbow Dash to a fight.

She wasn't ready to take on all this, particularly when she couldn't save the ones she cared for most.

It had been six years and Celestia finally forced her to return to Gallopagos. Perhaps her former teacher had thought it was time to try and heal the wound, or that Twilight needed to make peace with her failure.

Twilight wasn't sure how, Rarity's face was everywhere. Coco Pommel had made good on her word and started a product line that erupted into a permanent line that was now a company that produced at least sixty percent of the clothing for the entirety of Equss. Double R. Rarity Reignolds and her little symbol were everywhere. Coco was a shrewd designer and business mare, though if anyone had thought the death of the Element Bearer of Generosity would put a lock on the Element, Coco was the key. The company donated to relief efforts for disasters, schools, what ever charity happened to crop up. They had started a massive parade event for Hearth' Warming and while the Parade was no longer in their complete control as civic functions and other businesses joined in, it was still called the Rarity's Day Parade. She was even the primary sponsor for the new ESO and Sweetiebelle's band the Rarities.

Twilight was supposed to oversee the christening of the new school, to be the celebrity guest there along with Sweetiebelle.

Sweetie had grown up looking far too much like her sister. The young mare claimed she bore no ill will towards Twilight for her sisters death. Though Twilight sensed otherwise.

Whatever idea of healing Celestia had thought to happen with this trip didn't happen. It only made things worse for her..

She hadn't been able to take her time there and had grabbed the first train back to Canterlot. She was still unfamiliar with flying and she was in no shape mentally to try and teleport the distance.

So here she was, two minutes to midnight sitting on a train, staring out the window as the train back to New Canterlot started out over the long rail bridge crossing The Great Hooper Sea back to the main land. More miserable than she was to start with.

========================================================

The train conductor smirked as he glanced back at the trainee with him. Huh Train-ee, he'd have to remember that pun later.

"I can't believe who's on board. Did you see her?" the younger pale white stallion stammers trying to fix his dull brown mane, before hiding it all under his cap, the pony had an odd tattoo on his face, something he claimed he did for his mare friend after she was injured in a explosion, he wasn't sure of the details, and didn't bother to ask the shy stallion.

"Aye lad, happens, Princess can't ride around on gold chariots all the time." the older conductor nods a smirk crossing his black muzzled face. He chuckles softly shaking his own red mane, there were touches of gray in it and on his coat, but he was far from over the hill.

"The Princess is HERE? Which one?" the stallion questions, his brown eyes getting wider.

"Wait yah weren't talking about her? Did yah mean tha former Princess then Lad?"

"Queen Luna is on board too?" Jacuzzi asks. " And don't call me Lad, Rail."

The older stallion blinks, the kid couldn't be that dumb.

"Cripes lad,sorry, yah missed those two? What were yah fiending for tha musicians? I mean ah know tha Lady Octavia Melody and Miss Lyra Heartstrings is a fine pair of mares, but they might be a bit old fer yah." Rail Tracer chuckles.

"Who?" the stallion asks forcing the older one to face hoof.

"Seriously youngins, yah all only seem to like those screaming noise machines that are called instruments now adays."

"I like Sweetiebelle Reignolds..."

"Whatever, who the buck are you talking about then lad?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie!"

"Tha what?" Rail Tracer asks.

"She came through Hollowshades a few times when I was younger , she told the best stories and put on some of the greatest shows of magic I've ever seen. She vanished after the War of Gods and I thought she had been killed , but that's definitely her back there, a little older of course, but still. Do you think she'd give me an autograph?" Jacuzzi smiles. "For Holystone I mean, she would love it."

The answer caught in the old engineers throat as the entire train suddenly lurched to a stop, sending both ponies tumbling forward to crash into the boiler, the younger pony cursing wildly as the heat burned his side. The older stallion hollers as well smashing into the throttle and breaking the lever. Both of them scrambled to make it back to their hooves before another lurch sent them tumbling back against the door of the engine car. Rail Tracer screamed out as the door bursts open and he falls out of the back of the train,only to be grabbed by the tail and pulled back into the train cab by Jacuzzi as the train roars onward.

The pair of them look back to see the rest of the train had been ripped free of the engine as it struck the inside of a sickly purple shield. The first few passenger and transport cars plunging off the broken rail bridge into the water below or onto the black sand beaches of the island in the middle of the shield.

"What the buck is that?" Jacuzzi asks.

"I dunno, this should have all been water fer tha next few hours." Rail Tracer gapes.

"Did you maybe miss it in the past?"

"Been running this route for three years ever since the bridge was finished and that was never there."

The sickly yellow shield shimmers as the out of control train roars on across the broken bridge, the further away the pair got the easier it was to see the massive island that had formed in the center of the rail bridge across the sea. Ruins dotted the island and what looked like a massive dormant volcano in it's center. From the black sandy beaches to the ruins of a city larger than New Canterlot and Manehatten combined the island was encased in a dome of energy the likes of which Rail Tracer hadn't seen since the Royal Wedding of Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor.

=========================================================

Deep in the bowels of the island something stirred. An ancient evil that had long been sealed from the world.

Two glowing points of blue spark to life, flickering like candle flames in the pitch darkness.

"I live again..." a voice cracked in a tone sounding like the opening of crypt. 


	2. Pull me under

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Pull me Under

New Canterlot was in high spirits, for today was a very special day, one that many thought of more highly of than the wedding of Queen Luna and Lord Jer'rahd. Several businesses had closed, and others were offering special discounts for the event as well as themed items.

Thanks to Discord and Pinkie prying more than a little, it was now well known that it was Princess Celestia's birthday, something that the populace had long been curious about, but never been sure of. Celestia was never one for giving out her age, or being the reason for a party beyond the Summer Sun Celebration. Despite that, it was supposedly the Princess of the Sun's 15000th birthday exactly, and ponies every where were determined to celebrate it in style.

Of course this meant that all the great pony party planners packed the palace with a plethora of perfect presents. Nearly two dozen ponies and other creatures filled the 'party war room' that Discord had set up. Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich, Frivolous Celebration, and Roxo the Clown were just some of the ones in attendance. There was initially some disagreement about who would lead the troop party planners, but after careful consideration, cupcake bribery, and a nice speech from Discord, Pinkie Pie was put in charge, with the motion seconded by Cheese Sandwich.

The pink mare wasted no time in getting things going. The decorations around the throne room were minimal, as she knew the difference between parties for grown ups and parties for kids, and she had planned accordingly.

This of course meant that they weren't ceiling to floor deep in balloons and streamers, just knee deep. Also there was a taller table that wasn't as decorated and was constantly staffed with some more adult beverages. Jer'rahd and Berry Punch were in line before the tender had finished setting up.

The Platinum Swan was set to perform too, their stage taking up a corner of the large room.

The birthday mare was in her usual place on the throne, looking rather amused about the whole process. Pinkie Pie was currently bouncing about her chatting up a storm as the Sun Princess tried to hide her annoyance behind a practiced mask. She had tried negotiating, threatening and now she was nearly begging for this to be over.

"There is no need for all this Pinkie. I'm somewhat beyond birthday parties at this point." the Solar Princess said.

"Nonsense, Princess. Every pony should have a birthday party." the pink Bearer of Laughter replied.

"I'm not getting out this one, am I? " Celestia sighed.

"You're pretty much down ritual suicide to escape." Pinkie grinned. "And you won't do that cause Twilight would get mad and she's scary when she's mad."

Pinkie noted Celestia's attention had shifted from Pinkie as the Princess turned to look over the crowd of ponies here. Pinkie Pie glanced back as well, it was mostly castle staff at the moment, with some of the few family members Celestia had, and some visitors. Though there was also a pony Pinkie didn't know trotting right up to them.

The unicorn stallion was a dull gold with shades of silver in his coat almost like spots. His mane and tail were charcoal black. He wasn't wearing any clothing though Pinkie couldn't identify what his cutie mark was. He was strangely quiet as well and even the balloons he walked through seemed to move away before he touched them.

Pinkie Pie of course greeted him with her customary over the top hellos, and questions... and was completely ignored.

The ponies form suddenly melted away the dull gold coat sliding off him like water. What was left was a black scale armored stallion larger than even Celestia. Like the Princess the, stallion's mane and tail moved with a unseen wind, though unlike Celestia's his seemed to be made of black fire and smoke. His long horn was serrated along the top and his pale white glowing eyes spoke of a barely hidden cruelty. Draconic wings suddenly snapped open from his back knocking Pinkie Pie aside into the balloons scattered over the floor.

The stallion lunged forward suddenly, his horn lancing at the Princess. Celestia shifted just as quickly the jagged horn missing anything vital though it left a cut along her shoulder as she moved, the attack punching a hole through the back of her gold throne with seemingly no effort..

Celestia flapped her wings, lifting into the air as she glared down at the stallion her mane and tail alighting with fire. Most of the room scattered though the Guards were rushing in.

"I do not know who you are, but if you think that was going to stop m..." Celestia stated but was cut off as the stallions horn suddenly glowed a sickly yellow and the wound he inflicted felt like it was starting to crawl.

Celestia started screaming as her flesh began to wither and crack, her beautiful mane and tail began to go from pastel colors to gray, her wings and horn started to crumble and finally her eyes went milky white, her wing beats ceased and she fell to the ground with a crash of fine porcelain her mummified form breaking apart on impact..

Pinkie's poofy mane and tail immediately when flat and her eyes went wide with shock and tears fell from them.

"You... You... You killed her." She said, her voice full of horror. That's...That's impossible. Celestia can't die. She's...she's...she...sh...immortal.

A voice as cold as an arctic wind and as emotionless as stone replied: "Not anymore." 

============================================================

[ Six years after the defeat of Tirek, New Canterlot Castle ]

She awoke to screaming that seemed to be right in front of her muzzle. Her wings whipped as she lashed out with her claws, jerking upright struggling with the confining blanket. The material shredded under her claws and the simple brute force she brought to bear. Her wings however got tangled in the shreds of her blanket and her airborne escape was thwarted as she fell back to the bed, bouncing off it and crashing into a book shelf. The large piece of furniture remained upright though all the shelves within it were dislodged falling free along with their contents to crash down atop of her. The whole while something was screaming like a banshee right before her.

It was when she finally took a panicked breath that she realized she was the one screaming.

It was also about that time that the rest of the shelves in the book case dislodged their contents onto her head with a resounding thud.

She whimpered, wincing as the room's light's suddenly came.

Dawn Star Kaisur looked up with squinty eyes from under the tattered remains of her blanket and the mess that was left the book shelf by her bed. The orange scaled and gray furred Kirin whimpered running one of her fore claws up through her platinum blue mane. The shaggy mess of it falling over her face and hiding her green eyes.

Before her in the doorway was a zebra foal just past her super fluffy phase with deep red stripes, a curly black mane and a red crystal horn poking up from the mess of her mane. Her clear blue eyes looked over the chaos in the room with a clear look of annoyance on her face, mirrored by the stuffed ursa major teddy bare with her.

Rynthia Pelt Kaisur was clearly not amused at her sisters antics at three in the morning.

"Dawn what is wrong, what happened?" Rynthia demands with a small snort.

"That didn't even sound close to a rhyme." Dawn replies stretching out a little under the mess, her fairly long form shifting some of the toys and books piled on her causing a tin Guard pony to bounce off her muzzle.

"Because it's three in the morning time, I just woke up I can't think of a ….. word..." Rynthia mutters."Rhyme! That's it!"

"Ooh so close." Dawn teases.

==================================================

[Ten minutes earlier.]

"So yeah, like I said Jer, the pair of us will be coming around again in about a week. Velkorn says that Luna should be about ready to pop by that point." Rhede commented.

[" I said no such thing! I expect Luna not to be due until the end of the month, this fool just wants to speed things up so he can get back to Manehatten and to that parade or whatever it is."] Velkorn shouted from behind Rhede.

"You know he didn't understand anything you just said right?" Rhede called back.

"Then it's his own fault he has yet to learn, personally I think it was quite a sick burn." Velkorn laughed.

"Ooh trying to taunt him into learning zebra now... nice. Doubt it will work, also please don't copy something Rainbow Dash said." Rhede chuckled."That sounds way to weird coming from you."

["That was the proper usage of the term Rhede."] Velkorn huffs.

"Any way we'll be back in a week, bye until then Jer, don't let Luna go too foal crazy. Or Celestia for that matter." Rhede finished.

The sound cuts out and the glowing red light in the room goes out leaving it in darkness once more. There was a faint click and the recording crystal started up again illuminating the room in a red glow.

"Hey Jer, what's up? Velkorn and I are still in The Crystal Empire, but we're headed to Manehatten before coming back to Canterlot..."

Jer'rahd Kaisur, opened his eyes looking down at the glowing crystal on the small desk before him, his eye shut softly again as he listened to the last message he ever received from Rhede and Velkorn play for perhaps the thirtieth time that night alone.

The therapist hadn't liked the idea that he had kept the crystal, he didn't think it healthy. For that matter neither did Luna, but she allowed him to keep it provided he didn't dwell on it.

She wasn't here to stop him at the moment and it was not as if he could sleep any more without her nearby.

His time under Tirek's power had given his nightmares more fuel than they ever needed. Where he could some times make it through most of the night before, now he was lucky if he stayed asleep an hour before waking in a cold sweat, or a char-coaled pillow.

He had little trouble staying awake for days at a time,Orange and Luna both thought it was bad for him, and they were likely correct, though aside from making him more irritable he could manage several weeks straight before he started to doze off unexpectedly.

A day or two while Luna was away didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. He would have gone with her to Gallopagos, though some one needed to stay around to make sure the girls got off to school in the morning. The royal sisters and Elusive were attending the school in the Ponyville district, just as Pip and the Lily's had. It meant a bit of travel in the morning, but Rynthia got go to class with her brothers, and Dawn had other foals her own age to play with. Plus it was much easier to post Guards at a little school house in a less crowded part of New Canterlot.

Being near Luna was the only thing that stopped his nightmares. Even after she gave up her godhood to Sparkle her presence still allowed him to sleep. No matter what he faced, or what terror came after him in the waking world none of it even came close to what happened in his nightmares.

He had managed the nerve to consult a sea pony shaman at one point, though the tenticly beast creeped him out considerably. He or she? Maybe it? Any way they weren't able to help. What ever was done to him by Aqua's adviser was locked into place when he became a false god.

He wished he could have gone with Luna, perhaps make it more bearable for and to be honest when he had nothing to do he was a wreck. He couldn't sleep, the girls were asleep and all his other children were away. Berry was studying crystal magic in the Crystal Empire with her dragonling Beryl. He had bought a section of land where his old house used to be and given it to Pip as a graduation present. There was a decent sized house there now that Pip shared with Scootaloo. Orange and Hunter both lived in the Crystal Empire. His oldest daughter had taken a job at the hospital that they named after Velkorn and Hunter was currently training the Crystal Pony Guard with everything he learned teaching the 42nd. Even Brush had gone off to college in Manehatten. It wasn't the first choice for an artist of his caliber, but Jer'rahd knew the real reason he went and hoped the mare remained worth his son's effort.

Despite being the regent lord of the Kirin he had only been to the island perhaps twelve times in the last four years. Of course he didn't need to be there unless something big came up. Communications between New Canterlot and Gallopagos had been made triple redundant since the Tirek incident.

The last time he was there was to finalize the suggested route for the rail bridge. A massive duel set of tracks running across the shortest point between the south west edge of Gallopagos island and the main land near Baltamare was on the other side of the Hooper sea.

The pylons were put in place and were maintained by the River Ponies, who used the stone and corral foundations as farms for various fish and shell fish farming. They also maintained the tracks out over the water. The metal was some sort of ore the River Ponies mined that didn't rust and the trestles were designed in such a way that there had only been minor damage the last time a Level Three DR hurricane hit the area.

All in all it was a great engineering project, a leagues long rail system that stretched over an open sea over and island chain that used to be a mountain range and a landscape once ruled by Discord, before Nightmare Night sunk it into the sea. What was amusing was at first they decided to name it after him.

He refused of course, trying to foist it off onto Sparkle, but it seems engineers only named ships and the like after females, Solid study structures were named after males. Luckily he still managed to deflect it by letting the name be taken by Rarity's father.

Magnum Reignolds bridge

With the construction of the bridge he and Luna had briefly considered heading out to live in Gallopagos or near it on the main land. He would be able to handle the day to day events of running the Kirin nation from closer by and Luna could keep tabs on the Changelings. Many Changelings had moved onto the island as well, the place likely boasted at least half of all the Changelings that existed. The Kirin territories were one of the few that had nearly accepted the Changelings fully. Most places on Equss still discriminated in some way or another, either by not hiring them or refusing to serve them in shops, and those were the more polite issues.

Most of the acceptance was due to some of Jer'rahd's first rulings declaring the discrimination unlawful. Granted his exact words were,' If you won't accept my wife, then you can set up shop some where else.' Kicking that many shops and Businesses out of Lion Heart city was of course expected to be a fiasco and bring about a recession in the new nation. That didn't happen as several Apple Family Farms,a number of former Blue Blood,now Kaisur, businesses, and the main headquarters of Coco Pommel's production line all set up shop in Gallopagos making it a major business power nearly over night.

They had decided to not move there for three reasons.

First was Luna's aversion to the place, due to her history with the region.

The second was Jer'rahd's aversion to all the water around the island. He had panic attacks just going to and from the island.

The third was because it meant Rynthia would be further away from her brothers and the pair of them would be away from Elusive. The Kirin god wouldn't have any foals his age to play with easily with Dawn and Rynthia gone. So they stayed in New Canterlot.

Jer'rahd blinks noting the crystal had stopped. His train of thought had distracted him for a while and the thoughts of his daughters actually brought a half smile to his face. A rare thing this late at night.

He moved to tap the crystal again, listening to his best friends voices again when a scream and a crash

cut off such thoughts and sent him barreling out of his bedroom and down the hall, nearly knocking the door off it's hinges.

He slowed from his dead gallop as he came within sight of the door and his youngest daughter standing half in and out of it talking to what sounded like Dawn. He moved up behind the little zebra peering into Dawn's room curiously. The place was a brilliant mix of gold and white colored walls and furniture. Daring Doo posters and ones of cute kittens and puppies covered the walls along with some artwork that dawn herself had painted with her claws.

Her bed was almost against the far right wall with a pile of stuffed creatures taking up nearly the entire rest of the wall, piled nearly to the ceiling. The right side of the room had a school work desk and a overflowing toy box. Straight across from the door was a small window into the courtyard and a large book case that was currently half on the floor leaving a big pile of books and various nick knacks from his and Luna's trips he had brought back for her.

Buried underneath this pile was the wiggling form of his second youngest daughter.

"Is every thing alright?" Jer'rahd asked, looking down at the two fillies. Rynthia looked like he felt. Tired as if she hadn't slept much, though most likely she had been woken up by her sisters noise. Dawn seemed alright, although the moment she saw him her eyes started watering and she burst out of the book pile and rushed over to him. She scrambled up his side onto his, back grabbing tightly around his neck and burying her face into his mane. It was something he had gotten used to as she was growing up, every time something scared or startled her she immediately went to him like this.

Granted with the little Kirin's face buried in his mane, he couldn't understand anything she was saying when she started blubbering.

"Muffdenbutthawiththeantherbirthdaynighandsleepandpartyandhorn..." Dawn rambles.

Jer'rahd blinks looking back at her before looking down at Rynthia questioning.

"She had bad dreams, it is exactly as... you think... as you see?" Rynthia ponders.

"As it seems?" Jer'rahd offered getting a faint grumble from the small Zebra.

Rynthia had met her cousin Sunshine in her guise of Zecora a number of times and she was determined to rhyme like her. The problem was she didn't seem to be able to wrap her head around the whole process just yet. Of course Jer'rahd wasn't sure what a six year old needed to meditate or focus on, but he wasn't going to argue with her if she wanted to try. Most of the time it was cute and when she managed a rhyme she got rather excited and wound up being even cuter.

"Gunnawaubwithpinkandcakeandwheresauntie?" Dawn blubbers.

Jer'rahd glanced to Rynthia who yawns softly and shrugs having no clue what Dawn had said that time.

"What was that Dawn?" Jer'rahd asks.

"I wanna see auntie..." Dawn mutters into his mane.

" Celestia? Why?"

"Wannamakesureshesokay."

Jer'rahd blinked though he sighed. Seeing his sister in law was not one of the things that he wanted to deal with right now, but if Dawn wanted to he would put up with the Sun Goddess.

Jer'rahd smiled, softly picking Rynthia up his magic and setting her on his back as well. He would need to go slower as Rynthia didn't have claws to hold onto him with, but he would still get where he was going faster than with one of them walking on their own. If things were going like they should Celestia should be in the throne room taking over some of Twilight's Night Court duties.

=============================================================

The trot to the throne room was uneventful, save Dawn clinging tenaciously to his neck.

Canterlot Castle had been rebuilt nearly the same as the old castle, though this time it was built utilizing modern construction creating a much stronger base. Something that was tested by setting off a few controlled explosions against certain walls. While the walls still took a good bit of damage, the resulting damage didn't weaken the rest of the structure any and thus that section could be replaced without any effort. The insides were of course decorated again, though a number of changes had been made, most corridors were designed to funnel enemy troops to choke points and to offer easily set up cover for defenders.

Celestia had also moved all the stain glass windows from the throne room to a side hall, partially for security, but mostly because many of them were still being rebuilt and she was tired of birds flying through the open areas and trying to nest in her mane while she held court.

Jer'rahd nodded to the Guards out side the doors as he walked up, noting the pair of them snapping upright much straighter.

"Relax, I'm off duty." he comments not seeing either of them ease up a fraction. Some times being well known as a hard ass drill instructor and the Guard Captain of the Six Sixty Sixth was a pain.

Looking to the closed doors he was a little surprised that he couldn't hear the usual shouting that always seemed to happen during the night court.

He glanced tot he two Guards who simply shrugged.

"She sent the petitioners out about twenty minutes ago sir." the pegasi on the right side stated.

"If you're not here to participate in the court you might as well head in, she told us not to let in any more for the court but didn't say anything about Guard Captain's or family sir." The unicorn half dragon on the left comments.

"Right thanks." Jer'rahd nods pushing open the door. He was a little worried that Dawn was still clinging to him rather than poking at the Guards like she usually did. She found it hilarious trying to get them to move when they took the statue poses.

Pushing open the door he stepped into the great echoing hall. The carpets and drapery did little to ease the echos of the throne room. Granted that was what Celestia wanted. She didn't have to speak up very much to be heard and she could whisper without being heard, though any one away from the throned dais could easily be overheard.

Jer'rahd's eyes narrow seeing both Peach Blossom and Starfall in the room on either side of Celestia talking about something.

Peach Blossom looked older, it was something that rather bothered Jer'rahd. The orange cream pegasus was now in his mid thirties, a far cry from the young stallion he first trained when he awoke sixteen years ago. His new job, foals, wife, and the loss of several ponies close to him over the last sixteen years was easy to spot in his tired gaze and slightly sagged form. There was still the fire in his eyes that Jer'rahd recognized and he was still built like a brick wall, but his age was still starting to show.

Starfall was much the same, though the mare had tried to hide it, the signs of birthing twins, and another colt last spring showed. Her mane and tail were frazzled and like Peach Blossom her eyes showed far more age than her body, though she was showing the signs of much more easy living than she was used to. Still she could kick his flank so he wasn't going to say anything.

She glanced his way and smiled putting her hoof over her face to hold back a bit of laughter. Peach Blossom glanced over as well and slapped his face with a hoof as Jer'rahd approached.

Then there was Celestia herself. She hadn't changed in the slightest. Same eyes, same mark, same arrogant glare, same flattening of her ears at the sight of him, same need for 'wide load' to be painted on her flank.

She was sitting on her throne glaring at him as he walked in, though her expression softened at seeing the two fillies on his back, he could see a small black and white Kirin colt hiding under one of her out stretched wings at the side of the throne..

Elusive blinked at seeing Jer'rahd and grinned a bit, the small colt was a lot like Pip, he wanted to learn to fight, though his mothers both wanted him to study magic and science. Still Jer'rahd had managed to give him a few lessons here and there.

"I told you he'd show up." Starfall laughed. "That's twenty bits or a back rub you owe me."

"You couldn't have waited another ten minutes to walk in the door. " Peach Blossom groaned looking at Jer'rahd.

"Speak the name of the Demon and he shall appear." Celestia added rolling her eyes.

Dawn perked up at Celestia's voice, leaping off Jer'rahd's back and nearly knocking Rynthia off as well, though Jer'rahd managed to steady the now annoyed Zebra with his tail before helping her get down.

Dawn hit the floor in a run, bounding over towards the Solar Goddess like a ferret hunting . She lept up onto the throne plowing into the seated Celestia and knocking the wind out of her hugging her tightly around the neck..

The two pegasi look at Jer'rahd who shrugs, before they look back at Celestia who was struggling to breath around the Kirin's tight grip.

Celestia sighed slowly untangling her self from Dawn after a number of reassurances that she was fine.

"I'm fine Dawn... What's wrong?" Celestia asks using her patented paternal voice. The only one that didn't work on was Jer'rahd.

"Bad dream..." Dawn pouted.

Celestia blinked looking down at Elusive curiously, though the alicorn Kirin was still more focused on Jer'rahd as he approached.

"Alright. Are you okay? I need to have a word with your father a moment, how about you Elusive and Rynthia go play for a moment." Celestia adds as Jer'rahd watched the three foals wander off from the throne. Dawn nearly immediately tackled Elusive to play fight him. She only did that with a few of the foals she was friends with. Really just Shin, Talon, and, Elusive, it was supposed to be a throw back to the dominance thing imprinted in the first Kirin. But Dawn was smart enough to know she couldn't do any real damage to the godlings, so they got most of her attention.

"So what happened this time?" Jer'rahd asked. "You wouldn't be expecting me if something didn't happen."

"Three hours ago an island appeared in the middle of the Hooper sea. The island appears to have some ruins of a settlement on it and a large dormant volcano, which explains the black sand and ash covering everything. Most of the island is covered with a sickly yellow shield that is preventing any one from getting past the beach surrounding the island. The shield itself is odd as from a distance you can see the contents of the island, but the closer you get the less transparent it becomes until it's just a wall of magic right at the edge." "Peach Blossom reports.

"Not a reason to send for me in the middle of the night so go on with the rest." Jer'rahd sighed realizing that the three of them were drawing things out because the reason was going to be a kick in the teeth and he had a inkling of what it was. No not three. Celestia seemed just as pissed as he was getting.

"The island came into being, taking out several leagues worth of track of the rail bridge across the water..." Starfall continued.

Jer'rahd sighed cutting off Starfall." Who was on the train?"

"You need to ask?" Celestia states.

"No, but for once I am hoping I'm wrong." Jer'rahd muttered.

"You're not. Five ponies were on board the train at the time. The main car managed to just miss getting trapped, but the shield came into being right between the engine and the passenger cars. One of them was cleaved in half along with the bridge. The rest of the cars slammed into the inside of the shield jumping the damaged track and crashing onto the island. Good News. It was the Red eye so there were only five passengers, plus the two conductors in the engine car aboard. " Starfall continues. "Bad News, both Luna and Twilight were aboard it. There was also the Ponyville librarian, Trixie Lulumoon, a member of the Platinum Swan and the assistant headmaster of the Platinum School of Music, Octavia Melody, third... well the third is on par with your issues."

" As troubling as Luna and Sparkle being there?" Jer'rahd asked some what surprised..

"Yup. A former highly decorated member of the Six Sixty Sixth and a former member of Princess Cadence's Royal Guard. Lyra Heart Strings." Starfall continued.

"Oh buck... Bon Bon's mare friend." Jer'rahd growled slapping his face with a hoof. "Who ever did this dun goofed big time."

"Indeed." Celestia agreed.

"Plan?" Jer'rahd asks.

"Search and rescue of course. The Changelings can feel Luna still, but they say it is through a haze. Still that means she is still alive and if Luna can survive a train wreck so can Twilight. Also the moon is still moving so that's a good sign." Celestia states

"Here's something. With the exception of the librarian these are some rather high value targets. Ransom perhaps?" Peach Blossom comments. "Or a way to get revenge on you all for something?

"No one forms an island just to foal nap a couple of ponies." Jer'rahd grumbles."Besides I think I know what this is, it's something Sparkle and I couldn't find on our hunt. Searched for the blasted thing for a month."

"Oh?" Celestia asked " Do tell."

"I would if I could but I don't recall the specifics. We need to get Spike here, he knows more about it than I do. Celestia can you send him a message or one to Bleu as for us, then we have some preparation to attend to." Jer'rahd states. "Peach Blossom I need you to alert the Guards to be on the look out for a gray donkey with an odd accent or not speaking modern Equestrian at all. His clothing is likely to be a few thousand years out of date... Actually have Agent Sweetie Drops do it, it'll keep her occupied, though make sure she knows that we prefer him alive and unharmed, when Spike gets here I'll have him give her the full description."

"A Donkey?" Peach Blossom questions.

"Yeah he's sort of the herald of the bigger threat. We really need Spike or Sparkle for this I only recall bits of the whole thing, but I know enough what to look for. Starfall can you get Pip and Scootaloo here, I'm going to send them to the Crystal Empire."

"What for? They are some of the best Guards we have, shouldn't they be here to help?" Starfall asks.

"Because he's sending his foals to be watched by Cadence again. That I agree with, and having two of the best guard Elusive will give me some peace of mind as well." Celestia stated rising from her throne looking over at the three foals talking in the corner.

"Should we send ours as well?" Peach Blossom added looking at Starfall who seemed to be daring him to try and send her away with the foals.

"I doubt it. This is less for protection and more for foal sitting duty. Celestia and I are going to be rather busy." Jer'rahd states.

"Really now?" Peach Blossom questions, "Only you and the Princess? And I guess we just stay here?"

" I need some one I can trust to keep an eye on things here. Besides they have my mare friend and sister, and his wife." Celestia stated flatly looking at peach Blossom with a glare that was enough to make the pegasus flinch. "Do you really want to be in our way?" 


	3. Dark Horse

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Dark Horse

The winds whipped across the plains, stirring the pools of water that dotted the landscape. There was a crisp scent in the air, the sort you smell just after a rain shower in the summer, though there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

She turned her head slightly looking over the fields, far in the distance to her left was a mountain range that spanned the horizon. To her far right, she could see the start of a jungle. A massive tropical swath that ran all the way to the ocean at the end of the continent. Before her lay the empty plains and deserts that were at the very heart of the country.

Behind her...

She didn't want to look behind her.

She knew what she would see, knew what she had done, and she couldn't face it.

She felt herself turning any way, her hooves thudding on the soft earth as she spun about until her fore hooves splashed into the edge of a puddle.

Before her now was exactly what she expected to see, naught but ruin. The trees had putrefied and turned black and sickly green, the stones that were once a city had crumbled to dust, crops laying rotted in the fields far beyond saving, even if there was any one left to try. Carrion birds circled the skies, though occasionally one or more of them suddenly stopped dead in the air and fell from the sky, live taken from them as her gaze passed over them.

Littering the destitute streets, clogging the gutters with their blood and excrement,were bodies. They may once have been Ponies, Zebras,or they may have actually been neither it was difficult to tell. Bursting pustules covered a number of them, some were hairless or had patches of their flesh that necropsied and fallen free of the rest of their forms leaving rotted chunks and gaping wounds over the corpses. Still others seemed in perfect condition and they had just simply died. A few of the corpses were still standing upright, their bodies not even having realized that they had died yet. Others were little more than smears against the street, or bloated sacs of pus, disease, and maggots.

The was a faint dripping sound and she lowered her head, looking down into the puddle as a shift in the wind brought the scent of wet copper, rancid meat, and bile with it. The puddle at her hooves was patch marked with splotches of red that rapidly diluted in the still water..

Through the faint ripples of some one elses blood running down her features, Rynthia gazed upon the reflection of her blood soaked form.

=============================================

Rynthia jerked awake with a start, her hooves lashing out as she flailed. One of them smacked to the side of the chariot wall. She winced with a small yelp yanking her leg back as she sat up stuffing her hoof into her mouth sucking on the injured limb where she hit it.

The royal chariot had been upgraded since Tirek's attack had destroyed the last one, now it was fully enclosed, though the window at the front could be opened to speak with the pullers. The craft was heavily enchanted as well so even a single pegasus could easily draw it though the air, and even a fall from the sky would barely rattle the occupants.

The small red striped zebra filly pulled her hoof from her mouth looking at it and seeing no damage on the saliva splattered tip. She flinched feeling a hoof press into her hair , ruffling the mop of wavy black mane .

She growled, her ears flattening as she waved her hooves over her head to drive off the offending hoof, her crystal blue eyes looking up and glaring daggers at the offender and his grinning visage, her eldest brother, Pipsqueak Kaisur.

The white and brown spotted earth pony colt grinned at her from under his helmets visor. The young Guard had already made Lieutenant in four years time and was steadily working his way higher in ranks despite what a number of ponies were muttering about favoritism. Rynthia didn't understand why, Pip worked hard for what he had, and father made it a practice to stay out of his affairs leaving him under command of Peach Blossom and the Royal Guard.

Pip was still short, barely much bigger than he had been as a teenager. At just over twelve apples high he was only a bit bigger than aunt Starfall and just under aunt Rainbow Dash. Despite that he was very well muscled, to the point he probably could have hoof wrested her uncle Big Mac to a stand still. Despite this he wasn't bulky, though it was clear he was not some pony to trifle with.

"You doing alright kid? You were thrashing around there a bit." Pip asked with a chuckle.

"Just a nightmare, second one tonight so I guess it's a …... couple..., matched set...? "

"Pair." Pip adds with a chuckle. "Seems like a few of those going around the castle. You think it was something you ate? Ma hasn't been cooking again has she? I get nightmares from just thinking about her Spinach Casserole. Knowledge from every Changeling Chef that ever existed and she can still burn water."

Rynthia shook her head looking around the cabin of the chariot. The bags that had been packed the night before were strapped to the back and roof of the chariot. As always there was at least one chest that was kept in the cabin for them. Toys and books that they were only allowed to read or play with while on a trip so that they seemed new or exciting. Rynthia didn't quite fall for the tactic, but she had to admit some of the books were interesting.

Currently Dawn was half buried in the toy box, only her whipping tail and kicking back legs sticking out as she muttered something about 'missing a blue crayon' as she dug through the box, her little wings fanning madly.

The floor of the chariot had a couple of coloring books spread across it, including a number of scattered crayons. Rynthia took note that the blue one her sister was looking for was on the floor under the edge of one of the books.

Elusive sat on the bench across from her and Pip looking out the window back behind the chariot towards Canterlot Castle. It was long past out of sight though the Kirin god seemed intent to watch.

Dawn was clingy when it came to her mother and father, but she could be distracted from it. Elusive couldn't though he wasn't as clingy, he hated being away from either of his mothers for very long. Being sent out on his own like this had always seemed to bother him. Particularly after Talia and Elecktra went back to Gallopagos a few years ago.

Rynthia sat up putting her hooves on the back of the bench where she and Pip sat looking out the window to the front of the chariot.

Slowly flapping wings made of green flame filled her vision as the lightly armored mare pulling the chariot flew on.

Scootaloo was much like Pip in that she seemed all muscle, though where Pip's was readily apparent Scootaloo's was not. The orange furred mare seemed to not have an ounce of fat on her. She did just as much training on the ground as she did in the air to get that figure however. She had grown much larger than her mother and practically towered over Pip. She too had quickly risen the ranks of the Wonderbolts, though unlike Pip who simply ignored those who stated he didn't earn his position, Scootaloo went out of her way to prove she earned everything she did.

Aside from Rainbow Dash and Starfall there were none on the Wonderbolts team who could fly better than she could. Some were faster and could fly longer, but there were none more nimble in the air, and she was constantly training to better her speed and endurance. She was also the youngest member of the Shadowbolts, becoming only the seventh ever to earn that rank and position.

Rynthia glanced up feeling Pip shift next to her. The spotted earth pony had a wide grin on his face as he looked out of the window to the mare pulling the chariot. The little zebra blinked glancing up to Scootaloo then back to Pip who seemed far too interested in how the Wonderbolts uniform looked on his mare friend to notice Rynthia waving her hoof in front of his face for a few seconds.

"Hmm what is it kid?" Pip asked.

"What is going on? Why are we being sent to the Crystal Empire?" Rynthia asked in a flat tone.

"Oooh serious question, you didn't even try to rhyme." Pip nods. "Nothing really, just some political nonsense with new territory came up and Ma, Da, Aunt Twilight and Auntie Celestia needed all their attention to go deal with it."

"There is no trouble?" Rynthia asked skeptically as Pip rolled his eyes.

"Of course not. Other wise your big brother would be there kicking flank, not taking a vacation in the Crystal Empire with you." Pip grins ruffling her mane again."Don't worry about it you were all coming up here for spring break soon any way. Oh of which we have the next weeks worth of class assignments from Ms Cheerilee for you to do. You are skipping a week of school."

"If there is no trouble why are we not on the train?" Rynthia asked flatly.

"You saying Scootaloo's not fast enough for you?" Pip raised an eyebrow his ears flattening making the small silver studs piercing each of his ears click against his helmet. " Don't let her hear you say that."

"That is not what I meant." Rynthia snorts in annoyance.

"I know. Don't worry about it though. Pretty sure it's nothing since there was no evacuation of any one else. Though I will warn you. Berry and Beryl are still in the Empire so expect a great deal of chaos from those two."

"More so than when Auntie Bleu, Pinkie, and Discord get together?"

"Maybe not that much. But you know how Berry and Dawn get. On the plus side I hear Talons visiting Shin and Glimmer already. It's been a while since all six of you have been together."Pip comments.

Rynthia nodded glancing over to the white furred and black scaled Kirin looking out the window. Something was bothering Elusive, that was rather clear even if Pip didn't notice it. If the small colt hadn't been harassing her brother for the whole trip with questions about the Guard, then something was wrong. She would have to find out what later. If she had the time while keeping her sister out of trouble. Despite being the youngest of the Royal foals, she often felt like the eldest trying to keep the others in line.

As if the universe itself agreed with her, Dawn promptly fell all the way into the toy bin, the lid falling shut and latching with the flailing Kirin trapped inside.

===========================================================

Elusive stared out the back of the cart looking out at the farm and grass lands below. He could just make out the broken clouded peak of the Maneterhorn in the distance.

Cloudsdale had been rebuilt there at the top of the broken mountain, though rather than make it mobile again the city was anchored to the top of the Maneterhorn, with large cloud towns sent out from it with big weather orders. While not official part of New Canterlot, most ponies considered it the largest city in Equestria. A place where all three races of ponies architecture blended together nearly seamlessly. The soft and sturdy Earth Pony structures of Ponyville, the towering Unicorn spires of Canterlot, and the Pegasi cloud homes and sky ways of Cloudsdale. Other cities had boasted the same, but none to the degree that New Canterlot did. With Cloudsdale anchored to the mountain a more permanent spell was set on the clouds and the mountain that had many earth ponies and unicorns working in the weather factories now too.

Elusive shook his head clearing out another of his mother's factoids.

He didn't like this. Something felt very wrong about what was going on here. And it wasn't just the nightmares he'd been having... those horrid, horrid nightmares. The little Kirin god felt something else was wrong. His mom had been tense and his mother hadn't come back from her trip when she was supposed to.

Then there was uncle Jer'rahd.

Mom and Uncle Jer'rahd never got along. Elusive wasn't sure why. Uncle Jer'rahd was great.

He was brave, and strong and didn't take anything from any one. He always did his best to protect everyone and could beat all of the bad guys in no time at all.

The fact that Uncle Jer'rahd looked mad when he was talking to mom was nothing new, but that the pair of them were not arguing and were planning something together, that worried him.

He loved both his moms, but they both annoyed him too. Mom was the Princess of the Sun and Mother was Princess of the Night. The former kept treating him like he was still a baby, and the latter wanted him to learn Pi to the hundredth place as well as it's relevance in the universe before he was three. Then some day's they would switch minds and it seemed all Mother wanted to do was hug him and Mom wanted to teach him history or magic or something.

If Aunt Luna and Uncle Jer'rahd were watching him he spent most of the time learning how to properly hold a weapon or playing games like chess. When he wasn't being mauled by Dawn any way. He liked Dawn and rather enjoyed play fighting with her, but she was never serious and had the attention span of a gold fish sometimes. He liked Rynthia better. She was calm and smart and liked to read and didn't try to steal his food when she thought he wasn't looking.

Still he enjoyed that Uncle Jer'rahd was willing to teach him how to fight.

Both his Moms were really annoyed when Uncle Jer'rahd got him a small Guard spear for Hearths Warming last year...

=========================

[ Last Hearth's Warming.]

"Kaisur what the buck are you thinking?" Celestia shouted.

"That he might like this as a gift?" Jer'rahd stated sipping a mug of mulled cider in the family area of the Apple Family's home where they had all gone for the holiday. He stared at the tree and the foals around it , a large red santa hat covering his head and drooping over one eye.

" That is not at all safe!" Twilight ranted, her voice hissing as she tried not to yell in front of the foals.

"It's a spear, it's not supposed to be safe." Jer'rahd commented.

"He's a foal." Twilight growls.

"It's educational." Jer'rahd explained.

"What if he hurts himself!" Celestia growled, having no qualms at shouting at Jer'rahd. The foals were used to it by now any way and mostly ignored it.

"Well that will be a very important lesson, won't it?" Jer'rahd snarked.

"What would you do if we gave Dawn a sword?" Twilight snorted.

"Nothing, she ate the one Luna gave her already." Jer'rahd admitted.

=================================================

[Present]

Uncle Jer'rahd had been quite adamant that he know the rules of owning a weapon before he was allowed to even touch a real one. He had spent a number of months learning the care and responsibilities of having a spear and the one he was given was blunt any way. His Mom's even put a number of safeties on the spear that made it unusable at all until aunt Luna fixed it.

Of course it didn't help him now because it was still hanging on the wall back in his room in the Castle. The only time he ever took it down was when he wanted to practice, and both his Mom's did their best to find something else for him to do if they saw him with it. He hoped he didn't have to defend any one while traveling... granted he could always throw Dawn at them, she was more dangerous than a dull spear any way.

Despite all that he never wished that Uncle Jer'rahd was his dad. He had heard a number of horror stories from Pip about training with Uncle Jer'rahd that he was scared to try himself. Besides he loved both his moms and that was part of the problem right now. He was worried about what had happened to his mother. He doubted he was going to be able enjoy this trip until he found out.

====================================================

[New Canterlot]

"So that's the situation..." Celestia sighed.

"I'm afraid so Princess." The large purple dragon before her stated closing the book he held. Spike had grown a lot in ten years, but the last six had him hit a massive growth spurt. His natural form was now enough that he could barely fit into the throne room and even if he shrank as small as he could he was still larger than even Princess Celestia.

Bleu had grown a lot as well, She was a great deal leaner now too. She could still shrink down small enough to ride on Jer'rahd's back, but her natural size was now just smaller than Spike's. The scary part was the pair of them could still alter their size to be even bigger. Right now both of them could take forms that were nearly the same size as Forge Scale had been when he fought The Beast and both of them were still young yet.

Bleu and Spike had produced three clutches over the last six years. They hadn't hatched any of them themselves giving all of them to Celestia and Twilight for use in their school. Neither of them seemed that worried about not raising and of the eggs themselves. Given how both of their upbringings with ponies had shaped their lives to this point it made sense that they wished the same for their whelps.

In truth Dragons often were not concerned with their offspring any way and they were often raised by what ever dragon was free at the time or felt like it being family or not. Not all of them were like that of course, but Dragons seemed to follow the 'it takes a village to raise a child' mentality literally.

Still Bleu did pop up in the Crystal Empire every so often to tease one of her first to be hatched Beryl, and to steal sweet tasting crystals from Berry's research. The first batch had all been hatched by a host of unicorn students, three Zebra unicorns and in one case, a particularly gifted Diamond Dog pup with alchemy. The other two clutches were awaiting the next generation of students.

"Is this everything we know about him?"Jer'rahd asked looking over a book Spike produced.

The purple drake nodded, his coloration having darkened considerably to a royal purple and forest green rather than the bright coloration he had as a whelp. Bleu was still mostly blue, though as always she simply took what ever color suited her most at the time, Her current patten matched Spikes with sky blue scales instead of purple and green spines that matched her mates.

"If he didn't have any hostages this sounds like it might be easy for you guys to handle." Bleu comments. " Seems more like a reason to send out the Guard now."

"I certainly hope not." Celestia snorts. " We just recovered from one massive battle we don't need another. We are handling this."

"I thought as much." Spike nods. " So why did you want us here?"

"We needed a ride out to the island. And I didn't want to burden just one of you with both me and lardo here." Jer'rahd stated.

"Shut up Kaisur..." Celestia growled.

======================================================

The thing shifted in the darkness.

This would not do.

There was power to be had here, but it wasn't enough.

It wanted... no, needed to be free of this place fully.

It had nestled here for over a thousand years feeding.

Things had changed and it had been blocked from it's meal, starved.

It managed enough to keep it's meager existence, but that was not enough.

Now things had changed again.

It was no longer bound to one source of food.

It was unsure why, but the force that had kept it starved had weakened.

The power had shifted and the new power was unaware of it.

Though it was still weak.

But that was changing.

With so many sources of food presented to it, it's power was rapidly growing.

Soon it would have the power to free itself.

To be away from this place and some where it's meals couldn't escape it.

It still needed to be careful,cautious.

But not for much longer.

Very soon nothing would be able to stop it.

Soon it would be free.


	4. Journey of the Sorcerer

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR

Journey of the Sorcerer

She screamed again her cry echoing off the black crystal halls. She galloped through the palace , the smell of brimstone and burning cloth filling the air as she ran, the things hot on her hooves. She needed to find a window, or a way outside so she could take to the air. Her pink magic grabbed at the doors slamming them shut behind her as she ran.

It was to little avail as the things broke though the heavy crystal doors like they were paper and continued their pursuit. Roars sounded behind her like the yowls of a large angry cat, she spared a glance back over her shoulder only to see the gnashing teeth and and sparks of fire close enough that the end of her tail was singed. She ran faster, her scream for help a long drawn out thing that echoed in the hall and seemed to get even louder.

She suddenly noticed it was getting louder. She stopped screaming to breath, but the sound continued, a second glance back showed the things were all making the cry now, mocking her panic as they hunted her.

She darted around a corner rushing down another long hallway before slamming head first into something. She yelped as she stumbled, looking up as she scrambled back to her hooves seeing nothing. She took a step forward again and smacked into what felt like a wall. There was nothing before her but a long hall. She slapped at it with a hoof, the paint on the wall made to look like a hall scraping off at the slap showing the brick underneath.

She whirled looking up at the towering beasts standing over her, unkempt fur and black scales, black wings like a bats and long tails covered in spikes. The creatures slowly advanced on her now as she pushed her self back against the wall, screaming out as they fell upon her.

======================================================== 

Princess Glimmering Armor Sparkle sat up with a scream in her bed, her wings flaring out as she sat up, knocking a number of stuffed animals and one small Changeling out of her bed with her cry.

The yelp as the changeling hit the dark floor next to her bed sounded to Glimmer like a monsters bark and the pink pegicorn prim pony princess panicked. She screamed out again trying to launch herself into the air. Her blankets and sheets tangled about her tethering her to the bed briefly giving her the impression that the thing had grabbed her and forcing her to flap even harder. The sheet hooked on the edge of the bed gave way just as the door was flung open and Shining Armor burst in

Shining Armor blinked at the darkness of the room before he let out a yell as a large mass of something plowed into him at high speed. The winged bundle of teal sheets and blankets crashed into him, sending him rolling backwards into the hall and across it into the wall on the far side in front of a rather surprised Cadence.

The Empress of the Crystal Empire stepped back a little as her husband and the bundle of sheets that she assumed was her daughter judging by the pink wings and blue tail sticking out of the mass of cloth

flailed wildly.

She glanced at the door as a black blur darted out of the darkness and scrambled up her back to hide under her wing.

Cadence tensed a little at the thing at first, though she relaxed considerably feeling the little hooves gripping her back.

She ignored the flailing of her husband and the cries of of her daughter a moment to look back at Shin huddled under her wing.

The small changeling was in his normal form for once. A black unicorn with a red horn and green hair with the usual holes in his mane and legs. Green gossamer wings hugged to his black carapaced back. This was a sure sign he was upset, he was rarely in the form he was born in any more.

Prince Shintasha ( Shin ) Sparkle had learned some time ago how to change his form. Since then he rarely wasn't something else. He also never seemed to take the same form twice, though he often did color variations of his favored forms. He also never copied any one perfectly unless they asked and even then there was usual some tell that kept the copy from being perfect.

Oddly enough it didn't matter what form he took, Cadence could always tell who and what he was. Sure he might startle her at some point, the sea monster in the park fountain was a prime example of that, but she could always recognize him as being him.

Despite being the eldest child he remained smaller than any of the others even though he was seven. Still Cadence wasn't sure how much of that was actual growth or how much was he just liked to remain small. Another oddity was that none of the other Changelings in the Empire could hear him. Luna had looked into that and found that while there was nothing wrong with him, he was isolating himself from all the others. It wasn't an unheard of thing among the natural born Changelings, it was simply unusual, of course he was an unusual foal. It some times happened when they came upon information in the hive mind that they didn't like. Many were worried that it meant he didn't want to take over the rule of the Changelings.

Shin had yet to reveal what it was that he had found over the hive mind but if it was brought up he would usual change into something like a desk or a rock so that he could avoid talking about it.

He had also become some what clingy... alright, excessively clingy. He was just about always hugging or draped over some one, be it herself, Shiny, or his sister. The other royal foals were not immune from it either, though only Elusive and Rynthia seemed unbothered by the attention. Dawn never sat still for long and Talon and Glimmer both seemed uncomfortable with him being hugy for too long.

It was not that he was shy, far from it. Usually he was all up in every ones personal space looking everything over and getting into everything. The only one of the royal foals who seemed more adventurous was Dawn. Shin was just... well, clingy.

Cadence glanced over to her husband who was currently getting pounded on with tiny hooves as Glimmer screamed something about monsters. The Empress of the Crystal Empire sighed as she grabbed the blanket in her magic pulling it off the pair and revealing her bruised and battered husband getting bounced on and punched on by his daughter.

The pink pegicorn princess immediately stopped looking down at Shining with wide eyes and smiled sheepishly before quickly getting off her father.

Glimmer was already a tall lanky filly, towering above all the other royal foals save Talon. Likely she would be as tall as, or taller than her mother when she was fully grown. Shining was already dreading dealing with her possible suitors.

The young filly was as close to a storybook Princess as she could get. Long flowing, light blue, mane and tail, baby blue eyes and a regal manner about her that as far as Cadence knew hadn't been trained. She had even attempted to learn Royal Canterlot speak, thankfully for every ones eardrums, she gave both it, and the use of the royal 'We', up after only a few confusingly loud days.

Interestingly enough she was also careful with her image, remembering what happened to those in her books that abused their status or treated others badly. All any one ever saw was a perfect polite little angel.

Which was a load of shit.

Yes, her daughter was compassionate, kind, and tried to be friendly with every one, but she had a devious streak that showed itself far more often than Cadence liked.

If some one didn't treat her with the proper respect, or did something Glimmer didn't like they would usually have something bad happen to them.

Hot sauce in tea, frogs in their bath tub, waking up with their manes a completely different color. While none of the pranks were dangerous or permanently damaging the results were always very noticeable and some how themed around the perceived slight her daughter had received.

For the longest time every one blamed Shin for the pranks given the distrust of changelings and the ease which some one who could alter their form could sneak around.

Glimmer however always came to her brothers defense offering both Shin and herself a perfect alibi. In fact Cadence herself had only gotten lucky at one point and caught her daughter in the act of trying to swipe a particularly irate nobles wig. Since then she had noticed what to look for and kept a closer eye on her daughters antics, though she still missed most of them..

There were a few how ever that Glimmer didn't do anything to no matter how mad she got at them. Cadence was of course one of them, because Glimmer knew her mother knew and what would happen. Her brother was another, because Shin was her alibi in most cases and it wouldn't do to make him mad at her. Talon some how avoided her ire, though Cadence wasn't sure how, the Hippogryph foal was not one to sugar coat anything. Rynthia was also immune simply because Rynthia had figured it out too and she had a way of unnerving any one simply by staring at them.

While Dawn had been on the receiving end of more than a few of the retaliatory pranks, the little Kirin not only thought it was good fun, but had turned it into a prank war of escalation. A prank war that had destroyed three rooms of the palace and left both of them, and a number of Guards, bald for a few weeks.

How a couple of four year olds had managed what they did Cadence never wanted to find out.

The only other pony that Glimmer never did anything to was Jer'rahd. While she was no longer afraid of most Kirin, Jer'rahd still absolutely terrified her and if he was in the Crystal Empire she did her best to stay as far away from him as possible.

Jer'rahd was a little upset by this and had tried to make friends with very little success. Which hampered his and Luna's abilities to watch over her pair of foals when she and Shining had to travel some where or wanted some alone time.

If Jer'rahd hadn't seemed upset over Glimmer's fear of him and done his best to curtail it, Cadence might have thought he had planed it to get out of foal sitting duty.

"So what happened here?" Cadence asked looking down at the bundled ball of black fur huddled under her wing and the filly trying to fix her mane and ignoring that she had just trampled her father who was still laying beside her with a look of bemused annoyance on his face.

"Nothing of real importance mother … simply a unpleasant dream..." Glimmer states haughtily.

"Yep." Shin comments from under her wing.

"Wait is that Shin? Was he in my room again?" Glimmer demands.

"Yep" Shin commented.

"What did I tell you about that!?" Glimmer grumbles.

"Not too.. though I had a bad dream and momma and pappa weren't in their room." Shin explained.

"You should have woken me up before coming in!" Glimmer orders.

"I tried, then I tried to wake you up again when you didn't hear the knocking, then you woke up screaming and flung me aside with your wing... Mr. Bumbles smacked me in the nose." Shin protested poking his head out from around Cadence's wing his little fangs partially bared in annoyance at his sister.

"That was the blue bear right?" Shining questioned.

"The large green one dear." Cadence corrects. " The one aunt Tia got her."

"I thought Queen Luna got her that one."

"No Luna got her the purple rabbit, Mrs. Fluffikins." Cadence corrects again.

"Then where did the Diamond Dog doll come from?"

"Princess Little Piddles came from the Pinkie Pie Fun Fair when it rolled though here." Cadence states. "Twilight won that one for her." .

"Oh..." Shining sighed defeated in recalling any of the names for the massive collection of plush animals his daughter had.

The two foals however had completely ignored their parents and were currently making faces at one another. Shin was much better at it .

"Alright you two that's enough. It's nearly morning and Talon should be here first thing. Dawn, Rynthia and Elusive should get here by lunch time. So both of you go back to your rooms and to bed or you'll be too tired to play when they get here." Cadence comments flatly.

"Dawn's coming!?" Glimmer shouted in a panic before galloping back into her room. " I have to hide everything!"

"She's not that bad any more..." Shin yells. " She didn't eat or break any of my stuff even accidentally last time. And she only ate your pillow cause she dreamed it was a giant marshmallow!"

"Should I hide the good silverware?" Shining asked with a smirk.

"Oh please she hasn't stuffed everything in her mouth since she was three. Luna and Jer'rahd broke her of that habit …. thankfully." Cadence muttered the last picking Shin up off her back as he turned into a fairly large pink lobster and scuttled off to his room. " We only need to worry about her if she gets a hold of a lot of sugar. So warn the cooks..."

"Got it..." shining adds watching Shin scuttle off before gathering up the torn blanket with his magic.

"You think Jer'rahd and Auntie Celestia are going to have a issue with this thing?" Cadence muttered

"I don't know all the details, but Peach Blossom seemed more annoyed than worried. Evidently he and Starfall have been left in charge while Jer'rahd and Princess Celestia go after Luna and my sister. The whole things being kept rather quiet, though the public's likely to find out sooner or later, hopefully after the fact. I say we prepare just in case, Breezy and Dusty are getting involved too."

"Wait those two... does that mean..."

"Yeah, that thing is gonna be there."Shining shuddered

"Oh dear... Jer'rahd and my aunt, with that thing, and the pair of them are pissed off..." Cadence frowned her ears flattening.

"Should we prepare to house a bunch of refugees from Gallopagos again?" Shining groaned.

"Perhaps we should... and anything bordering the Great Hooper Sea too... just in case."

==========================================================

Talon Strike Mist the Third, flattened his ears to his head and tried to ignore his parents arguing. The hippogryph foal was little annoyed at the pair of them, but he knew their arguments always ended in one of two ways. One they would wind up trying to make him another sibling, or two they would get into a physical fight which would end up with them trying to make him another sibling.

To be perfectly honest with how headstrong his mother was and how much a slacker, slash, jerk his father could be it was a wonder their home wasn't swarming with hippogryphs.

The hippogryph sighed, his wings fluttering a little as he fluffed up his feathers. The dark gray fur and main feathers covering him were almost blue in coloration with flecks of white on them. Puffs of white showed through from his down feathers under his main ones making him briefly resemble a storm cloud breaking up into a puffy white one. He whipped his tail, the long cat length tufted with a lighter blue coloration that matched his short cut mane. He sighed rubbing his claws over his beak and stretching his back legs out, his hooves scraping over the deck as the arguing continued.

He wasn't sure what it was about this time, though it seemed once again something was going on in Equestria. There was a sizable force being deployed. A mix of Ponies, Griffons, and Harpies that now lived in the new Griffon nation after the last place they lived was all but destroyed and ceded to the remaining harpies.

Talon flipped a page in his book , barely paying attention to the words, it was just the charter of the Council of Gods, nothing he hadn't read twenty times before any way. There were a number of glaring errors in it he needed to point out at the next meeting of the council.

Talon was smart, in fact he was considered by many to be genius. At age five he had gotten into a debate with Princess Twilight Sparkle over the nature of Starswirl's third therom of energy. The only reason she had managed to win that debate was that she had contact with a echo of Starswirl who could point out how he had come up with that particular theory.

He likely could have already been leading the Griffon Nation save one glaring issue. While smart enough to run it he didn't have the emotional stability to do so. Despite his intelligence he was still only six, and what he saw as a logical thing, others saw problems he didn't, he also had no clue how to go about political double speak. When he was told something he took it at face value.

He wasn't really concerned with why his parents were fighting this time. In truth it was probably nothing more than his mother was cranky. She hadn't been sleeping well lately and it showed with how she looked. Dad had probably said something insensitive and she lost it.

Talon had been having bad dreams as well, but it was the usual. The same phobia he always had in dream form. While it panicked him while asleep, he could logically dismiss it when he woke.

Still this would be a fun few days He was going to stay with Empress Cadence and Emperor Shining Armor. Their libraries had books he had yet to read, and there was always a host of intellectuals staying there either in the libraries studying or debating something. He would love to check in on Berry Kaisur as well and see what she discovered from her crystal research.

Their was his friend Shin. While the changeling god wasn't on par with him mentally, Talon rather enjoyed his company, even when he got clingy. Games of hide and seek with Shin always wound up a challenge as there was no telling what he could change into at any given time.

He was less excited to be seeing Glimmer. Mostly because he would surely be stuck attending a tea party, or something like that with her. Still he put up with her because it was polite and she was nice enough to him that he didn't want to upset her by refusing.

He was also rather excited because he had heard that the trio from New Canterlot were coming as well. While that made him suspicious of what was going on, the lot of them were often together on holidays or when their parents were called away for something.

He rather liked them all though Rynthia was the only one who was even close to rivaling him mentally. Elusive tried, but he couldn't get his head around half the things that Talon knew.

Then there was Dawn.

He had no idea how to think about Dawn. The Kirin whelp was a walking disaster of madness and chaos. He didn't understand half of what she did and the other half he couldn't understand how she did it. She was the only one of the six of them that was not a god, yet all of them were often forced to try and keep up with her rather than the other way around. She got along with everyone and seemed to know every one. No matter what was going on the little Kirin always seemed to be trying to enjoy herself some how. It was an odd carefree state that he envied at times, perhaps she was the only normal one of the group and this was how all six year olds were really supposed to act. He thought that unlikely as he had some experience with Griffon chicks his own age and none came close to how Dawn acted. Still his experience had been clouded with others, some thought him odd with his mixed parentage, or thought him frighting for what he was, or even worse, treated him as if he was better then them because he was royalty or they tried to gain favors.

There was always something that kept him from making any friends, he blamed some of it on himself as he didn't try to get along with any one his age.

Perhaps that was why he rather liked the other Royal Foals... none of them cared about that.

Granted they were all gods or royalty themselves so they might have known where he stood. Or in Dawn's case, never paused long enough to think about it.

Still, despite his worries he was going to try to enjoy himself, no matter how many tea parties he was forced to sit through.

This had been quite interesting. It had not even been a day since his master had sent him out to gather information, and in truth he was completely amazed by what he found.

Mechanical transports, towering structures that put a castles to shame, magic everything,from trinkets to advertisements, the wealth of power abounded here.

And these things were not just for the lands rulers, things like these 'trains' and 'high rises' were made for the commoners. It made him quite interested in what royalty of this age possessed. Surely they would not all have the same level of luxury, after all what would be the point of royalty if you didn't lord what you had over others

Then there were the creatures themselves that wandered about him. Ponies of all kinds, Griffons, Minotaur, Zebras, Diamond Dogs, Donkey's, and a number of races he didn't recognize at all. All of them in the same spaces, chatting, or walking with each other, no bloodied conflict, none of them seeming to think themselves worth more than others...

Madness.

It had been harder to infiltrate in this age of wonders simply due to the culture shock. He could blend in fairly well as members of his own race still wandered about, though the awe he displayed was hard to repress.

At least he thought it would be harder.

Amazingly no one seemed to care very much, and aside from a few utterances of what he assumed was some sort of new swear word that sounded like 'tourist', most ignored him unless they were trying to sell him something. There were a lot of creatures trying to sell him things.

The market he wandered through carried things he had never seen before, and all manner of foodstuffs that were rare and hard to come by. Grapes, strawberries, pastries, sugar, flavored drinks, tea, Again he was struck with the curiosity of what this ages rulers feasted on if the finest things he had ever seen were now commoner fare. Such rare delicacies were being sold to the rabble for what seemed to be a pittance. He needed to sample some of them, just to make sure they were real.

It barely took any effort to lift a pouch from a distracted Griffon and see what sort of odd coins existed in this day.

The metal disk itself was a gold coloration, but it did not seem to be gold. One side of the coin had the image of the sun, and the other one of the moon. The mint was from a place called Equestria, so he assumed that was the land he was in.

He shoved the bag under his cowl, it was a bad idea to be caught with ill gotten gains, better to spend them and be rid of the evidence. After a short bit of time he was decked out in a new outfit and had sampled a number of the new foods, with the taken purse nearly empty he considered his next move, though he was readily distracted.

While pondering how the apples of this era had grown large, pretty, and rather bitter compared to what he recalled, he spotted the Griffon he had relieved of his wealth speaking rather loudly with a pair of ponies in some sort of uniform. He decided it was time to be else where. A library would be best for recent history, though many of those wandering around were reading odd gathered bits of paper with words covering them. Perhaps one of those could be acquired.

Slipping into an ally he scooped one of the parchments up from a rubbish bin where it had been discarded before making his way to a park like area away from the markets and the uniformed ponies.

Seeing few others around he took a seat on a stone bench, sinking a little lower into his new cloak to look over the paper.

The words were illegible to him at first, but a swift spell quickly fixed that.

Baltimare Times, the name meant nothing to him, nor did what he assumed was the date stamp at the top. The numbers were arraigned as they should be but he was unsure what ANM meant. What ever event reset the era seemed to have happened only a thousand and sixteen years ago.

The parchment was indeed garbage. Most of what was written in it seemed to be little more than gossip on some Princesses or another. There were sale papers and some things about recovering from an attack by something called Tirek. There was also mention of a Queen Luna, and a Empress and Emperor of a place called the Crystal Empire. Perhaps this Queen was the one who ruled this particular area. Judging by the words she did not seem well liked.

Just the paper was not going to be enough, there was barely any proper context in it , he needed to find some one more knowledgeable about the local areas or a library of some kind. There was far too much information to be had, and he needed to be sure he had all his facts straight or his master would not be pleased.

====================================================

Far above the city another cloaked figure sat on the edge of a roof, her red cloak fluttering behind her in the wind as she looked out over Baltimare though a pair of binoculars.

She had been close by on another mission when the order was given straight from the Princesses mouth.

A Code Black.

There had only been one Code Black since she had been put in charge and created the system to denote a missions importance. And that code had been given when Queen Luna's youngest daughter was an assassination target. The call wasn't given because of the attempt, the call had been given because both Princesses, Queen Luna, and Lord Jer'rahd had immediately acted on it without consulting her or any one else. Thankfully she had been able to talk them down from making the Zebra race extinct, but only barely.

This time she only had a general idea of what was going on. She was aware however of three things.

First was that Princess Sparkle and Queen Luna were missing and that Guard Captain Kaisur, Queen Bleu Scale, Princess Celestia, and King Spike Sparkle were going to do something about it.

The second was that she had a named target and a brief description of said target for capture and the target had been sighted entering this city.

The third was that her mare friend was one of the ones missing and her target had information that might help with a rescue, or failing that … a recovery.

Special Agent Sweetie Drops didn't like to think like that, but her target was here and so was she and capturing him was all she could do.

With Lyra's life possibly on the line all the monsters of Tartarus themselves could get in her way and it wouldn't be enough to stop her from finding this Donkey named Bray. 


	5. Purple Rain

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Purple Rain 

[ Three years after the defeat of Tirek.]

The figures looked around nervously as they followed the Kirin Guard, neither had ever been to Canterlot Castle before and they certainly had never been invited directly by name.

The crowning of the new Princess of the Night had only been a few months ago and every one was still rather nervous about how Princess Twilight would do in the position. Most of the fears were based on if she was ready for the position, not if she was capable or not. The events of what had come to be known as the Great Hunt left little doubt for any one that she could handle herself.

Most were more worried about the ex Princess who was now only the Queen of Changelings. Partially as they didn't know what she would do now that she no longer had to care about Equestria, and yet still lived in Canterlot Castle.

The pair of earth ponies trotting through the halls following behind the silent black and purple armored Guard certainly had no clue about any of that, nor were they really thinking about it.

Mr. and Mrs. Shallot were just a pair of farmers who lived to the west of the Unicorn range on a small plot of land and grew onions and a few other crops. None of their products ever made it out of their local area, as it wasn't a big farm, nor were they really interested in expanding or modernizing their fields. In truth they rarely left their homes save for the occasional visit to Canterlot, Although after the War of Gods they had no reason to come to New Canterlot any more, in fact they had become even more recluse never leaving their homestead at all save for the occasional trip to the farmers market in small town near their farm..

The mare of the two, named Sweet, was a dusty yellow color with short cropped green hair that hung in bangs over her tired looking blue eyes. She was in her sixties, though she still got around easily enough and had no issue working in the field with the younger mares. She wore a simple brown dress that quite possibly was the fanciest thing she owned other than her wedding dress, and that still sat in a box, sealed away in the attic of their homestead, the white gown never going to be anything more than moth food at this point. Her cutie mark was of three small purple balls made up of many tiny star like flowers.

The stallion, Chives, was a reddish brown hue with a black mane that had faded mostly to gray and seemed to have put forth very little effort put in to making it tidy. He wore a charcoal suit, much like his wife's, that might have once been nice but had seen better days. He wore the ill fitting thing with no small amount of protest, not caring who it was who called them to this city, but his wife's argument won out and he wore it.

He walked with a slight limp, though he kept the same speed as the Guard with out any real effort. The injury was an old one from his youth, though it still pained him occasionally now. His cutie mark was of a simple iron plow. His brown eyes were partially hidden under his brow, unlike his wife who was only confused at why they were here, and wished to be home already, he completely hated it. He had a reason of course. Canterlot had taken some one he cared about away from him for a time, and had then taken them away forever. Still one did not ignore a direct order from the Princess, or at least some one using her seal.

But upon arrival, it turned out it wasn't the Princess they were going to see.

The Guard led them to a rather unassuming door deep in the halls of the newly rebuilt Canterlot Castle. There were still things being worked on and they could hear the noise of construction echoing down the still mostly empty halls.

The armored Kirin knocked on the door his black ears perking at the faint response from beyond it. With a small flourish he pushed open the door, ushering the couple inside before closing it behind him and returning to what ever duty was interrupted by their arrival and escort.

The room it self was a rather subdued affair. On the far wall from the door they entered there were a number of book shelves between a pair of doors leading out some where. There were two windows to their left that looked out to the Royal Gardens and showed a number of what looked like Guards darting around tending statues for some reason. The windows let in the sunlight and were the rooms only source of light, though it was enough to see everything clearly.

The wall to their left held more filled book cases. The carpet on the floor was a blueish gray and was soft under hoof after the marble hall way they had trotted down. A small wooden desk sat near the middle of the room with a pair of high backed chairs in front of it facing the desk. A few other chairs like them were tucked in the rooms corners as if ready for more than just two visitors. Another chair was on the far side of the empty wooden desk , though this one was occupied.

Seated in the chair behind the desk was a platinum blue maned pegasus mare. Her fur was a blueish lavender gray in color and her eyes were bright aqua as she looked them over. The mare looked rather familiar, but neither of the earth ponies could place her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Shallot, welcome, please have a seat, I hope the trip was pleasant for you." the mare commented with a soft smile.

The couple glance to each other and then back to her before moving to take their seats, the stallion stifling a small groan as he flexed his sore leg, old wound or not there was only so much walking he could take.

" Can I get you anything? Tea? No? Alright I suppose I shouldn't delay and simply get down to why I had you summoned here." The mare asked noting their head shakes.

"That would be nice. I really don't want to be back in this bucking city again." Chives grumbled his wife shushing him before nodding to the pegasus who seemed unphased by the attitude or vulgarity.

"I understand your dislike of Canterlot, far too much has happened here and many lives were lost needlessly due to the greed and desire of others. We have much to do to ensure tragedies of that magnitude never happen again, but we cannot predict everything I am afraid. "The mare sighed leaning back in the chair, her wings folding tight against her back."Now then I suppose I will start with the most basic, yet important question for you I have. What are your views on the currently freed Changeling race?"

The pair of older ponies blink at that, though Sweet frowned and looked away while Chives just seemed to get angrier.

"They should all be destroyed..." the stallion grunted.

The mare looked between the two frowning a little herself.

"Is that belief based on what they did to your family, or is it your own opinion? Please answer truthfully."

Chives snorts though Sweet speaks up before he could answer.

"To be honest they weren't much of a concern to us, just some far off boogie mare, even after the wedding of Princess Cadence and that Shining Armor fellow it wasn't our concern. But after they attacked the last time... well …. our daughter lived here in the city then and... she was killed by them..."

The mare behind the desk nodded softly. "I am sorry to hear that. I understand her name was one of those put on the monument to the fallen."

"Fat lot of good that does. Now is there a point to making my wife cry and if there is get to it so we can get on with our lives..." Chives snapped.

"There is Mr. Shallot and I am sorry for beating around the bush in this, but I needed that answer. The Changeling race as a whole is no longer what they were under the control of Queen Chrysalis. Most had no more control over their actions than a puppet on a string. The ones that did have been …... brought to justice to say the least. All that remains are a hoof full of natural born Changelings who barely know how to act with out their former Queen and larger number that were not born as they are now."

" If you're trying to play on our sympathy for them that's long gone..."

"Dear shush... Miss... ummm"

"Luna. Just call me Luna."

"Miss Luna, I don't know what you are hoping to accomplish by telling us this..." Sweet begins.

"Sorry, I am getting to that Mrs. Shallot. Please bear with me. The ones not born as Changelings were turned into them by the hive itself in order to have more bodies for the war machine Chrysalis created. There are a number of races that have been changed and with Canterlot having been destroyed many records were lost and we are just now getting them back. We have been matching up who these Changelings say they are with the records to confirm them. Many of them are very old by pony standards, but a rather sizable number are much younger. Having only been Changelings for around thirteen years or so."

"Alright so there's some young ones … so wha..." Chives stops his rant suddenly, his eyes going wide as he nearly leaps out of the chair as he stared at the pegasus mare." Wait... you...you don't mean."

Sweet blinks not quite having put two and two together yet. She glanced between the two ponies in a bit of shock and confusion.

"The great monument listing the names of those who died during the War of Gods is being taken down. Far too many names have been removed from it, the rest will go on what looks to be a much smaller monument. Spring Shallot is one such name that is being removed from the monument." Luna stated feeling the swell of panic and hope from both of them.

"Where is she?! Where's my daughter?! " Chives demands rearing up and slamming his hooves down on the desk as Sweet also rose quickly to her hooves. 

"Calm down Mr . Shallot. She is here. And I will bring her in to you, but you need to understand a few things first." Luna placated. "First is that she is a Changeling now, and no longer a Earth Pony. In truth this changes nothing for her save the way she eats and some of the things she can do. It does unfortunately mean that there are a great many out there who do not trust her and might have issue with her very existence, hence my questions and a rather excessive background check that has been carried out on you two over the last few months. Two, she was considered a drone by the Swarm and thus she has little to no memory of the last thirteen years of her life. We have therapists who are working with her and others on coping with this loss of time, but neither of those are the biggest issue."

Luna exhaled, her form shifting in a slow burn of green fire showing her body as the black carapased Changeling Queen she was. She looked over at the two of them after her change and smiled a little.  
The pair of them both looked shocked, though the panicked hope was still there, even Chives anger was muted by the other emotions.

"The biggest issue is that she needs a family that loves her to help her get herself back on track with her life. I am not saying it will be easy for any of you, but I am suggesting that it will be much easier if she is around those who love her no matter what she looks like now. This is why I needed to gauge your reactions at first. It does no one any good to reunite families when all it will cause it strife simply due to something that was neithers fault."

"My Daughter, Miss Luna...Please..." Chives demanded though gritted teeth.

Luna smiled softly again, looking to the door behind her on her left. The soft click from it announcing it's opening. The Shallots both tense looking at the door as a short and some what stocky Changeling with brown hair and gold eyes hesitantly steps though the door. Her gaze shifts between the two earth ponies there and then to Luna still seated behind her desk who nodded.

"Spring... is that … is that you...? Sweet begs inching closer.

The changeling mare nods " Yes... it's... it's me momma..."

Both the mare and the stallion rush forward nearly tackling the mare as all three of them burst into tears at the reunion while Luna looked on.

The Queen of the Changelings sighed softly to herself as she watched the reunion. If only all of the reunions were like this... still more might be... she only had... seven hundred and twenty eight more to go.

====================================================

[ Current Day, 1100 hours, first day after the appearance of the island. Crystal Empire. ]

Talon sighed softly trying not to squirm in his seat. The chair was uncomfortable and clearly designed for some one smaller than he was. Of course it wasn't as if he couldn't change the size of the chair with his powers, but given his lack of control over his abilities trying to make the chair just a little bit bigger might result with it shrinking to nothing, or growing so big it broke the room. Glimmer wouldn't deal well with either of those outcomes and so he sat uncomfortably, with Mr. Tibberhouse the hedge hog to one side of him, and General Floof Bottom Gertrude the Third to the other. Honestly he was curious as to how Glimmer recalled the names of these creatures, Floof Bottom just looked like a pink pony with two too many legs.

Then there were the hats... he didn't need to get started on the hats again. Everything had a hat, his was a corsairs hat that one of the sky sailors from his dad's ship had let him borrow, it was far better than anything Glimmer would give him. Glimmer herself had a ridiculously fancy crown that looked like some kind of green mushrooms for some reason.

He sighed taking a small bite out of a cookie chewing slowly wishing it was something a little more substantial but lunch was still and hour away. He turned his attention to the host of this little tea party, the Princess on the other side of the table. Every one called her a Princess though she wasn't a God, something he himself forgot more often than not with how she acted. Her magic was also quite strong even as young as she was , but like him she had limited control.

Right now Glimmer looked kinda bad. Normally he would clearly point out when some one looked like crap, his mother called it a 'lack of a filter', his father called it rude. Still when it came to speaking with Glimmer he listened more to his mother when dealing with her, girls knew like or something. His parents had dropped him off just after dawn and had left immediately after talking briefly with Emperor Shining Armor and Empress Cadence.

It was just another hint that something was going on, much like Glimmer's appearance. Granted that didn't explain why she had her brother Shin locked in a toy box on the other side of the play room with a number of things piled atop it to keep him from doing more than looking out a small hole in the side of the box that was used as a handle. Talon was too terrified to ask why at this point, or to interrupt the inevitable arguing between the siblings.

"Let me out!" Shin hollered his voice muffled from the things piled on top of the box.

"No, this is pay back for you coming into my room again last night..." Glimmer snapped." Also so you stop hanging off us while we have a tea party."

"But it's dark in here, I'm scared of the dark..." Shin protested.

"No you're not, you don't even have a night light in your room." Glimmer grumbled.

"I said sorry, let me out or .. I'll tell Momma!" Shin yelled.

"And you'll be stuck in there even longer next time..." Glimmer turned to glare at the pair of cat like eyes staring at her from inside of the toy box.

"So that's how it is... now we see the violence inherent in the system … HALP HALP I'm being repressed!" Shin shouted.

Glimmer slaps her forehead with a hoof dislodging her crown.

"Will you shush?"

"Nope."

What do you want?" Glimmer sighed finally.

"Cookies!" Shin countered.

Glimmer grumbled softly righting the tiny crown on her head with a hoof, her magic gripping the plate of cookies from the table, floating it over to the side of the toy box before the hole only for what looked like a red octopus tentacle to squeeze out of the hole and grab a bunch of the cookies before pulling itself back into the gap.

"That better not have been your tongue!" Glimmer snapped yanking the plate away.

The long tendril like appendage sticks back out of the gap and wiggles along with the sound of a very loud and rude raspberry. Glimmer growled louder as Talon tried not to chuckle at the absurdity.

Any retort that Glimmer was planning to make was cut off as the large door to the play room burst open with a loud thud, swinging wide and smacking into the wall at the end of its swing with a crash.

Glimmer tensed up at the noise as Talon glanced back his wings ruffled a little from the double thuds.

Standing in the door way was a orange scaled and gray furred Kirin filly, one fore claw lifted up still, having kicked open the door. The platinum blue haired filly's mane and tail puff were a mess, though that was mostly because she had spent the last ten minutes of the chariot ride with her head out the window. Behind her on either side of the door were a fairly amused looking black scaled Kirin colt and an annoyed looking zebra filly with red stripes.

Behind those two was a tall smirking orange pegasus mare with a short purple mane and a much shorter white and brown spotted earth pony who had face hooved at his little sister's entrance.

"Dawn what did mom say about kicking in doors like that?" Pip asked with a small sigh as the trio wandered into the now open door way.

"Not to enter a room like Daddy does when he goes to see Auntie Celestia." Dawn responded.

"And what did you just do?" Pip demanded.

"Entered the room like Pepaw Rose does when he goes to visit auntie Celestia." Dawn answered flatly.

Pip was about to respond to that, despite Scootaloo's decent into full fledged laughter behind him, though he instead opted to shut his mouth for a moment and phrase himself carefully.

"Right, well, try not to do that either... "The exasperated older brother of the Kirin finally stated. Pip looked over at the other two in the room scanning the place curiously. "Hey Glimmer, Talon. How are you two doing? So where's Shin hiding thi..."

The short colt had made it as far as half way through the door when a loud crack against his rump made him flatten his ears and turn his head back to glare as his mare friend who had decided to slap his flank with a hoof.

Scootaloo had opted to try and appear innocent by studying a random spot on the ceiling.

"You know what, you all play nice I need to have a word with Scootaloo here." Pip grumbled, glaring back at the giggling pegasus

"And by 'word' he means smooching..." Scootaloo added sticking her head through the doorway behind Pip getting a chorus of ewww's from the foals before Pip pushed the cackling mare out the door closing it behind him with a thud.

Rynthia shuddered at the thought of what her brother and Scootaloo were headed off to do, though she made her way further into the room, her eyes locked on the rustling toy box.

Glimmer was focused soly on Dawn as the Kirin filly took off her saddlebags setting them by the door. Clearly the pink pegicorn was waiting for Dawn's usual chaotic antics and was tensing up for her to make a dash for the tea party or something.

Dawn was not even paying the slightest bit of attention to Glimmer and seemed to deflate a little when Pip left. The Kirin filly trotted a good dozen more steps into the room and flopped down on the big carpet near the rooms small, cold, fired place. With out so much as a word to the others she gripped the rug rolling it over her self as she curled up in the middle hiding herself from view.

"Ummmm" Glimmer questioned glancing over to Rynthia as the Zebra filly peered into the small hole looking at the trapped Shin.

"So what did you do this time?" Rynthia asked the Changeling.

"Shin did nothing. Shin is innocent of this crime." Shin protested.

Rynthia rolled her eyes pushing the piled toys off the box only for a large green tiger to bounce free of the box and pounce her to the ground.

"HI RYN!" Shin shouts huggling the prone Zebra filly his tail whipping wildly.

Elusive shook his head a bit offering a small nod to Talon who returned it. The Hippogryph fully expected the Kirin colt to bring up a new idea for something that they should build or create, though he seemed more subdued than usual.

Usually Elusive would have an idea or a plan to put something together when Talon was around, be it a couch fort, a model zeppelin, or a water balloon catapult. The little Kirin had better control on his magic than any of the rest of them and could easily put things together with it, but he needed Talon to add his input to make sure that the idea would actually work.

Granted after the water balloon Catapult, Mark six, saturated several blocks of down town with it's test firing he was a little leery of Elusive's plans. Sure it was fun and the design was reworked for Guard use, but the number of complaints and broken windows had both of them grounded for a month.

"Hey Glimmer. Shin keep you up all night or something?" Elusive asked taking a seat at the table after moving one of the stuffed toys away. The Kirin didn't even try to go for the cookies, something was wrong." You look terrible.

"I look terrible?" Glimmer stuttered. "What the heck happened to you three? You all look awful too... well in Dawn's case , more awful than normal."

"Shush 3P, I dun wanna hear it." Dawn growled rather aggressively from her little rug cocoon .

Glimmer's expression softened considerably as she glanced at the bundled Kirin then to the others, looking worried.

"So what happened?" Glimmer asked, a great deal calmer and with more concern in her voice. As mad as she could get at the others she still rather liked them all.

"Nightmares." Rynthia stated pushing the Shin tiger up off of her as she stands only to have a smaller house cat version of the Changeling tiger land on her back and curl upon it batting at her fluffy hair.

"Cookie?" Shin offered the zebra with one of his paws though the filly shook her head.

"Nightmares..." Talon asked glancing over to Elusive who nodded in response laying his head on the table.

"It began about a week ago, though the effects of sleep loss are just now beginning to …... tell, appear...?"Rynthia ponders.

"Show." Glimmer offered causing the Zebra filly to sigh.

Talon looked at Glimmer and her rather haggered appearance then to the tired looking Rynthia, the half asleep Elusive and then over to the Dawn burrito on the floor. The only one not showing signs of sleep deprivation was Shin... granted Talon didn't know what that would look like on some one who could be anything they wanted.

"How bad...?" Glimmer asked.

"Ponies died..." Dawn growled from in the carpet." Aunt Tia... Mommy and daddy...Pippy everyone...

"The results of my linage coming true..." Rynthia adds getting a few confused looks from every one but Talon and Shin. The Hippogryph knew about the lore behind Zebras and Gods. Shin just seemed to but upset over it and hugged the Zebra filly harder.

"Same... I dun wanna be like my real mom was..." Shin muttered getting a bit of a look from the others again.

"I've been getting chased through my dreams every night by Kirin... I know they're not bad , but it's just terrifying..."

"I dunn wanna talk about it..." Elusive grumbled. " It embarrassing and horrific. Also Dawn if you say anything about it I'll tell mom who ate her red velvet cupcakes!"

Dawn had poked her nose out from under the rug though with a snort and a small splattering of sparks she pulled it back under.

"I regret my dreams are filled with an excessive amount of insects." Talon comments. " I am … not fond of bugs."

"That would explain the anthill thing last summer." Elusive commented.

"Not my finest moment." Talon agreed.

"Wait Shin's practically a bug, if you're afraid of bugs how are you okay with him?" Glimmer asked glancing over at the pouting purple Persian cat perched on top of Rynthia's back.

"He's not buggy, he's my buddy." Talon corrects suddenly getting jumped on by an over sized green hamster launched from Rynthia's back.

"So everybody's had bad dreams?" Dawn asked unrolling from the rug.

"Yeah, real bad ones. Since like last weekend." Glimmer commented.

"Like wise" Elusive commented as Rynthia nods."Which is very odd as mother is guardian of the dream realm and I never get nightmares when she's around.

"Mom used to be, but my dreams are normally nightmare,... less,... without.." Rynthia snorted.

"Free." Talon adds as Rynthia rolled her eyes.

"I don't think it's just us." Shin states suddenly though a mouth fully of cookies. "The other foals in school seem kinda out of it too."

"Pip said that nightmares were going around." Rynthia added. " Like a sickness moving about a … village... city?"

"Town."Shin stated.

"Dreams don't work like that." Talon pondered. " This is something else. Think, was there anything in the dreams that stood out? All I had were bugs."

Not that I recall. There was just a bunch of horrific, Kirin chasing after me." Glimmer shudders. " No offense Elusive."

"Hey" Dawn snapped.

"Some offense Dawn." Glimmer corrected.

"What?" Dawn blinked.

Shin shook his head as Rynthia thought about it.

"So no correlation... Bugs, Kirin, monsters, and self doubt and fear..." Talon grumbled.

"And a big scary monster guy!" Dawn added.

"A what?" Talon asked as Dawn darted over to the toy box digging around for some crayons and running back to the table pushing all the plates and saucer's aside much to Glimmer's annoyance as she tossed a sheet of paper on the table and started to draw.

"A big scary monster thing. Black scales burning hair..."Dawn hastily drew as she spoke." Dragon wings and a spiky horn like this." Dawn continues to sketch the rough image. It was fairly easy to see the thing was supposed to be an alicorn of some kind, though Dawn's liberal use of black made the image seem even more warped and distorted than the thing probably was. Still the other foal's eyes grew wider with recognition.

"That... that looks like the Kirin that were chasing me..." Glimmer muttered.

"I think that might have been who opened the door that let in the bugs..." Talon commented.

"He looks like I looked." Shin whimpered.

"That was the chef who gave me that thing." Elusive growled.

"That was one of the bodies still standing..." Rynthia gasped.

"We all saw this?" Talon muttered."This is no normal nightmare."

"So we need a smart pony." Glimmer commented."

"Ummm." Talon muttered.

"Oh you know what I mean with magic..." Glimmer placated.

"Sissy?"Dawn asked.

"Yup." Rynthia commented.

"You mean Berry?" Shin asked as the other two nodded.

"Oh no..." Elusive rolled his eyes dropping his head back to the table.

===============================================

[ Baltamare, 2300 hours. Last night.] 

" _Tonight... hurricane..."_

The lights flashed madly as the guitars and drums beat down on the last chorus of the song.

 _"I want you... hurricane..."_

The crowd was screaming as the lights flickered and beams of multicolored light danced across the stage and the crowd.

 _"To tell you... I love you..."_

 _"Love you..."_

The back up singers echoed the line, the group of five looking little more like normal unicorns and a pegasi mare with the instruments. The all wore faux leather jackets, chains and spiked or really bushy manes giving the group a some what punk appearance.

 _"Tonight... hurricane..."_

Sweetiebelle stood at the front of the stage, belting out the remaining lyrics to her last song for the night. Like the others she was dressed in punk attire, though her mane was currently super fluffed and it felt like it weighed more than she did sitting on her head. She didn't even want to think about how much hairspray she had used. 

" _I want... hurricane..."_

This was only their second show as the main act in something beyond what was set up by the ESO. Playing for the charity organization was all well and good, but Discord had decided that they needed to show they could carry themselves without the support the ESO gave. 

" _To hold you once more..."_

Sweetiebelle had agreed, which brought them to this point...

 _"Touch..."_

…..a whirl wind of a concert, with two local bands leading off before them. The other bands were alright, but they didn't have Button Mash in the control booth like she did. 

" _Burning touch..."_

What started as a simple concert like their first one, had turned into a near impossible stage show with magic flares, strobe lights and smoke machines. The back drop changed every time the tone of their music shifted and the sound system seemed to become a living thing as the stallions hooves danced over the board.

 _"Give me touch..."_

The crowd had gone from mildly entertained with the first two bands, to completely losing their shit by the time the Rarities had gotten to their second song. 

" _Burning touch!"_

Sweetiebelle and the Changelings shout out the last line as the song dies out suddenly, and the lights go dark.

The roar of the crowd was deafening, and as she made her way back stage she could see her band mates nearly vibrating with the flood of love energy they had absorbed from the crowd. Despite just coming from a nearly hour long performance the five of them looked ready to run a marathon with how they were bouncing around.

Sweetiebelle grabbed a bottle of water with her magic splashing it over her face and smearing the make up that had already started to run from her sweating under the lights. She glanced enviously at the other members of the band and how easily they changed outfits.

She had been right that the budget saved was sizable, of course what was saved from costumes and make up went into Button's props, not that she minded yet, two shows on their own and they had nearly doubled the crowds from when they toured with the ESO. She didn't regret the few years with the charity organization and she still had ties to both them and Coco Pommel's company, but she had agreed with her manager Discord, that they needed to break away to be able to grow.

Sweetiebelle smirked at the thought of the Draconequus. He wasn't here now, having going with Pinkie Pie to her folks place for a visit. She had never seen him so nervous as when Pinkie dragged him off to the rock farm.

Still the Hurricane tour would have it's manager back in about four more shows. He would meet back up with them before they crossed over the ocean to Japony.

Despite every ponies disbelief that Discord would do the job properly, he had more than proven himself capable and exstreamly shrewd in his dealings and plans. Oddly he never seemed to add to the usual chaos of the music scene and simply seemed content to enjoy the madness that was already present.

He did take a cut of the profit himself however, not much but it still seemed weird at first until one realized that he was saving it up for something, likely something for Pinkie Pie with how much he doted on her.

Pinkie Pie had slowed down a little in the last few months since Sweetiebelle had seen her last too. She had put on some weight as well, no surprise with how many sweets she ate, still that took forever to catch up with her she had to be in her thirties now. Sweetiebelle felt fat from just one doughnut, not that it stopped her from eating a whole box when she was hungry however. It just meant she had to work it off.

Button Mash was kinda the other way around. While sweetie had slimmed down a bit more as she finished growing, Button had bulked up. Not with fat as many expected, the brown colt was built like a boulder now and would probably give Applebloom's brother a run for his money in the muscles department.

None of their equipment was light and Button carried and set up nearly all of it himself for every show they had with the ESO and now completely by himself with the tour. That constant exercise clearly showed and Sweetiebelle couldn't help but giggle at every pony who had taunted him for being out of shape when he was younger. He had mares drooling over him now. But he was of course oblivious and Sweetiebelle wasted no time in showing whose colt friend he was.

"Belle." A voice crackled though her head set.

Speak of the pony...

"Yeah Button, what's up?" Sweetie asked.

"I've got the Storm Cloud idling outside for you, though the crowd is still screaming for more." Button comments. "None of them have left... in fact I think a few more have shown up from some where. What do you want to do?"

Sweetiebelle blinked looking back at the Changelings behind her. The five of them had some how been convinced to join her band at the start and now she couldn't imagine doing this with out them.

"They want more?" the blue maned Carol asked

"They want more." The pink maned Melody agrees.

"I'm game." Shanty the green maned Hippogryph Changeling grinned

"So what do we do?" The green bodied and maned Aria asked.

The only male in the group, despite his currently looking and sounding like a female grinned, pushing his orange mane behind his ears. "What do you think we are gonna do?"

" Encore?" Aria shrugged.

"Encore." Sweetiebelle agreed. "Button line me up another set. B-2 spread this time."

"On it." Button stated.

Sweetiebelle slicked her sodden hair back with a sigh tying it into a long pony tail as the others turn back towards the darkened stage and screaming fans.

She was tired, sore, hot , and looked like she fell asleep with her makeup on. But the stage called her and the fatigue was pushed aside for later.

Sweetiebelle wouldn't have this any other way.

============================================================

[Current Day, ? ]

It was gone.

The presence was gone.

That stifling insufferably repressive presence was gone.

Dead or sealed away, it really didn't matter much at this point which had happened, though if it was the latter action needed to be swiftly taken before it returned. She needed to act now and if this worked she would be able to claim an even more power than she had thought she could attain Something long kept from her.

She had spent a number of years trapped here unable to do anything after that ungrateful child trapped her here. But after even this short of time she found she could feel the lines of power crossing this place, faintly at first, though with years of practice she had a better command of what she could do.

She couldn't do much as she could feel the presence of one of the Goddesses brushing over her prison every night as if checking up on her lingering about as if waiting for her to move. But now that that presence was gone she could act.

The Book of Orbsah that had never been named would have grinned had she the features left for it. Her prison of glass trapped her on the lunar surface. Her warden was gone and she could freely tap into the power of the silvery celestial orb without fear of discovery or repercussion. She could possess the moon itself and use it to dominate the lands below.

The Goddess Avianna would rise again. 


	6. Put your lights on

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Put your lights on 

[ New Canterlot, three years after the defeat of Tirek. ]

Soarin sat across the table looking at the white and brown spotted earth pony colt before, his eyes fixed on him with a low glare.

Pip on the other hand seemed preoccupied with fiddling with a small dull metal stud that was a new addition to one of his ears. Soarin wasn't sure what it was, but the casual dismissal annoyed him more whether the colt intended it or not.

The small white and brown spotted colt was a solid wall of muscle. His mane and tail were still cut ridiculously short from the training he had complete a few weeks ago though it was rapidly growing back.

Soarin crossed his hooves in front of his face, staring at the colt over them. He knew why the colt was here with his daughter and he knew there wasn't much he could do about it at this point. Scootaloo was set on this one.

He and a few of the 42nd trainers had talked before and during the basic training that Pip and his daughter went through. He pulled some strings and made more than a few of the trainers focus as much on Pip as they could. The goal was to make his life a living hell to the point where he would fail and his daughter would see how unworthy of her he really was.

That plan had back fired spectacularly. Not only had Pip managed to pass with flying colors, but he did it to such a degree that he surpassed everyone else in the training. Granted Scootaloo was just under him in her overall scores in both skill and leadership. Of course after he called in his favors he found out that former Princess, Luna had done the same thing in regards to his daughter in order to make her life miserable so she would fail for the same reason he targeted Pip.

Then there were the nobles who also called in their favors to make sure no one got any special favors by being related to famous ponies, a number of them actually monitoring and staying around the training area to ensure that everything was going according to how things were supposed to go to the point that they offered suggestions to make things worse.

This madness of course ended with just over half the trainees dropping out over the course of the thirteen weeks of training. Those that remained were the scariest bunch that had ever graduated. As a show of it they took one of the insults that had been used to refer to them by the nobles and some of the trainers and made it a title to fit the class.

Devil Dogs.

Even the lowest preforming of the class was on par with if not higher than the first class turned out by the 42nd training regiment.

And his daughter and the target of his ire finished at the top of the class. His daughter was already setting up to take the training to become a Shadow Bolt. Something that would seem a cake walk compared to what she had already been through. Soarin recalled his own training for the position and remembered how it nearly killed him.

Pip turned his attention to the kitchen where Spitfire and Scootaloo had wandered off a few minutes ago to get dinner. Before he turned meeting Soarin's gaze.

"I really can't stand this you know." Soarin states flatly his gaze trying to bore into Pip.

"Sir?" Pip asked hesitantly.

Soarin flattened his ears.

"I have one daughter, just one, and the first colt she brings home that she likes turns out to be Kaisur's son. I have seen what he's done to those who want to date his daughters and I am sure you have too. Plus I'm not even certain after that nightmare of training you CAN be intimidated by me, Shadowbolt or not. So yeah thanks for taking away the one thing I've wanted to do since Scootaloo was born from me!"

"Umm I'm sorry?"Pip comments blinking up as Soarin slams his hooves onto the table growling as his wings flare out the blue stallion climbing onto the table to stand over Pip to glare at him

"You're sorry?... You're SORRY!?" Soarin ranted barely getting warmed up.

=======================================

[The kitchen]

Spitfire glanced to her daughter then back out the crack in the door to the two at the table talking with a small smirk. Soarin had no idea what he was doing and had gone off on a rant about his daughter that made little sense. Judging by the look on Pip's face he clearly wasn't expecting the ridiculous tirade. If intimidation didn't work, pure insanity seemed to be. She was quite aware of what her husband had set up with his friends regarding the training and was some what proud of him for being devious. Only some what as his actions had also made things ten times more difficult for their daughter, though she expected Luna had a hoof in the mess as well.

"Well?" Scootaloo muttered from behind her. The orange pegasus was now taller than she was, taking more after her father. She looked ridiculous with her purple mane and tail nearly cut off completely from the training. At least it was growing back.

"What do you think of him?" Scootaloo questioned.

Spitfire pondered a moment more, wondering when she should go out there and rescue the poor colt from her husband before Pip thought Soarin was having a psychotic episode. Seriously her stallion was trying to out intimidate some one used to Guard Captain Kaisur. Oddly he seemed to be succeeding just by acting irate and loony.

Now what to say to her daughter, she rather liked the colt particularly after learning he had saved Scootaloo's life in the fight with Tirek, but she couldn't just out and approve. Scootaloo might decide to break it off if she approved of the colt too much. Spitfire doubted even the training got rid of her rebellious streak. Reverse psychology never worked on her daughter before either. One plan left.

"Well?" Scootaloo demanded.

"He's got a cute butt." Spitfire chuckled glancing back at Scootaloo as her daughter paled at the comment. Perfect.

"What!? MOOOTHER! GAAAH!" Scootaloo stammered turning beet red.

============================================================== 

[ Current Day. One hour from Gallopagos Island, midair, early morning after the appearance of the island. ]

"So that's the gist of it." Spike rumbled, flapping his wings one more time as he soared along through the air. Bleu flew along beside him, nearly touching wingtips though it was some what a necessity so she could hear what he said. Their passengers didn't seem to have any trouble shouting things at each other.  
"So our best bet it to destroy that bell the moment we see it, if it rings the island and any one on it vanish again for a unknown amount of time." Celestia commented. " Much as I would wait for Twilight and my sister to appear again, it does not mean I would wish too."

"That is what the scroll I found said. It seems the last pony to encounter this sort of thing was Starswirl himself. And even he didn't know from how far in the past the island was displaced from. Though the scroll does tell the story of how he and his friends used six artifacts to beat back the islands owner to the point where the Capricorn rang the bell and escaped." Spike added. "The true origins of the place are lost."

" What the bucking flap is a capricorn?" Jer'rahd demands.

"It is what happens when a Seapony and a Ram have a child. They are exceeding rare given most Rams have an aversion to water due to their thicker coats and live in the higher places in the world. I met one once a few thousand years ago, but I've not seen or heard of one since." Celestia stated.

"Is there anything on this planet that can't cross breed?" Bleu grumbled.

"I've never heard of a dragon bucking a Harpy." Jer'rahd stated. He blinked and lowered his head one hoof going to his ear and a small box attached to it. "I'm here, go ahead Captain."

"Is that Captain Nightfeather? Is she set where she is?" Celestia shouted.

"Damn it, shut up, I'm talking here." Jer'rahd snapped. "Not you Nightfeather Celestia's bitching like a Diamond Dog in heat again. No it would not be a good idea to repeat that... Alright, hold that position and don't let anything pass towards or away from the bucking island. Have the Seaponies keep an eye on the damn sea floor as well. When the Regents get here tell him to move between the Gallopagos blockade and the bucking island... What about the mainland blockade."

The gray and orange Kirin paused listening in for a moment.

"No that's fine, not a damn thing you could have done, just let Agent Sweetie Drops know her targets in Baltimare. I want the main roads and shipping lanes into and out of the city monitored for any sign of that Ass. He is to be taken alive if possible, ONLY if possible, don't risk yourselves if he fights back, put him down hard. I don't want so much as a damn doctor's check up out of this operation. If he won't come quietly, he can come in a bucking bag. Don't bucking bother asking him a second time." Jer'rahd ordered through the com. "Kaisur out."

So what about the citizens of the island Spike?" Celestia asked. " What happened to them."

"All but one seem to be dead according to the notes. Bray was reported as the last living citizen of Tamberlane. There's a small note here about when Starswirl encountered him he carried himself like nobility and claimed he was the King of the island. Still he was shown as little more than a sniveling, if loyal, servant of the monster of the island. Grogar." Spike lists off thinking of the scroll he had summoned.

"So the plan is simple, destroy the bell, rescue the hostages, kill this guy, sink the island, and then go home." Bleu chuckled. " Sounds easy enough."

"You two will back off to the blockade the moment you drop us off. I want you away from that damn place." Jer'rahd stated.

"What? No! They got my sister in law... two of my sister in laws, and my assistant Dean in that place. Nuts to me backing off." Bleu growled turning her head to glare back at Jer'rahd who had sunk down to stare at a scale on Bleu's back as they started passing over the water.

"No deal Bleu. Things are going to get crazy enough even if Celestia's fat ass still recall how to fight properly. I don't need any friendly fire incidents. I'd allow Spike, but I need some one to keep you the buck out of the way and to relay any information we might need. Nothing we've seen yet stops dragon fire messages until this bucking shield went up."

"Screw you Kasiur." Celestia snapped.

"Pass, my dick might be big, but there's no way even it would get past your butt enough to do that." Jer'rahd yelped grabbing onto Bleu as she nearly fell out of the sky laughing at his comment.

Celestia growled smirking a little at the flailing gray Kirin clinging to the erraticly flying dragons back. Jer'rahd was inventing quite a number of new curses before Bleu finally leveled off.

"Is it just me or is he particularly crude today?" Spike commented.

"He's not around the foals, likely he's repressed and censored himself a lot and that's all coming out now that he's angry." Celestia explained. "I'm still going to kill him the moment Lulu gives up on him, I really will."

"You've been saying that for years." Spike chuckled.

"Yes and my sister has yet to get rid of him..." Celestia grumbled.

=============================================

[Crystal empire 1300 hours.]

"Isn't this exciting of course it's exciting! I don't know what'll happen, maybe it'll work the way I thought or maybe it'll explode... TWICE!" A red maned mare with a dark blue coat shouts as she bounces around, her white lab coat fluttering around her tall lithe frame as she pranced her gold eyes sparkling.

"That only happened... four times..." Beryl sighs. The small blue dragon muttered something else before pulling a welders mask down over his face and tucking his arms behind the umpires chest guard he wore. Despite being younger than the royal foals the dragonling seemed much more mature at four than Berry was at nineteen. Still despite being smart and mature he was still only four and Berry didn't let him do anything but watch and comment on her experiments as of yet.

The four Guards that acompined the foals to Berry's lab were pressed back against the wall and two of them had magical barriers raised between the foals, Berry, Beryl and the strobeing white crystal box situated on a table in the center of Berry's lab / apartment.

Talon was watching curiously, rather interested in learning more about what she was working on. Still he was quite happy with the presence of the shield between him and what ever this thing was.

Elusive stood next to his Hippogryph friend trying to appear fearless, though he clearly wanted to hide some where. His dread at seeing Berry was thankfully short lived as the mare was too distracted to try to hug him to death for being adorable like normal. Still it was possible.

Shin was hugging tight to the black Kirin god's back, currently in the form of a turtle with a purple bandana over it's eyes. The Changeling looked far less bold than his friend and was trying to urge Elusive to back up further.

Rynthia wasn't really paying attention. She stood near one of the Guards looking up at a book case near the door , pulling a few tomes off and flipping through them curiously.

Glimmer was right behind one of the female Guard's legs, she had covered her face with her wings as if that would help her if it what ever it was exploded. Living in the Empire had made the two of them wary of some of the things berry had done. The fact that she had a giant black crystal Spider she rode around from time to time didn't help matters to make the Empire foals any less terrified of her semi reckless nature.

Dawn was, of course, standing on her older sisters back dressed in her own lab coat and goggles with both her fore claws on Berry's head looking at the shining Crystal thing on the table with no small sense of awe and a bit of drool.

"Can it do that? Can it 'splode twice?" Dawn demanded.

"Yep it can and it has... " Berry grinned madly. "It was awesome!"

A sudden brighter flash of yellow light caused nearly all of them to cry out at the change. A low hum could be heard, one that rapidly grew louder until there was a sudden loud 'DING!' of a bell and all the lights and noise stopped.

The group of them all looked at the table and the odd white crystal shaped box on it. Berry rushed over to it looking it over curiously with Dawn peering around her head with nearly the same expression. The unicorn frowned slightly as her horn glowed and her magic pulled on a small part of the crystal box, the front of it opening with a hiss of steam. She lowered her head peering inside the box at a small dish that was covered in some sort of paper. Pulling the dish out of the box with her magic she slowly peeled back the paper on top exposing a gooey mess of cheese and red sauce that made Elusive shudder.

Dawn leaned closer to the table top sniffing the item before sitting back on Berry's back and holding her nose in disgust. " Bleah 'falfa."

The unicorn grinned wider taking a sniff herself and laughing .

"YES, IT WORKED! Equss's first TV dinner is completed!" Berry cackles.

"Except for the twenty some other first ones you've made." Beryl sighs not removing his mask.

"But this one;s stable!" Berry grins.

"I give it four minutes. That was how long it took last time." Beryl sighed.

"What?" Talon asked." What is a 'tee vee' dinner?"

"This." Berry points to the dish with a hoof.

"No I mean... what does it mean?" Talon rolled his eyes.

"Oh well T means Telekinetic, V means Vibration. Dinner is what you eat as a last meal of the day unless you have a midnight snack." Berry rambled "You know like a good oat cake some honey wafers, a nice chocolate mousse... okay I made my self hungry, Beryl did we eat yet?"

"I did." The baby dragon stated." Your last meal was dinner last night."

"Oh well, lemmi go make a sandwich then. Mmm peanut butter..." Berry states prancing away from the table and the 'food ' on it. She ducked into a side room with Dawn on her back still.

"Wait why aren't you gonna eat that. It's a dinner isn't it?" Elusive asked just as the dish suddenly exploded, sending bits of alfalfa mash, gooey cheese, and red sauce every where. The room was quickly splattered with the mess though most everyone was more concerned with Elusive's sudden high pitched shriek as a glob of cheese hit the shield in front of him. The black scaled Kirin wasted no time rushing off and diving behind one of the Guards Leaving shin floating in mid air looking like a over sized humming bird.

Berry poked her head back out of the small kitchen with a spoon in her mouth and Dawn still on her back munching on a cookie now . She pulled the spoon out of her mouth pointing at the mess thankfully only splattered against the Guard's shield and the rest of the room, not the foals or Guards themselves.

"That's why. TV is still a unstable thing. While having something this small would be a boon to small guard outposts or traveling ponies and even ships that can't have proper stoves or fires for their meals the process makes the food predominantly inedible at this point. Still that one remained solid longer than I expected so my corrections must have been on the right path. The hardest part about this is that by telekineticly vibrating the molecules in the object you create heat which cooks the food, unfortunately due to the laws of motion and object at rest tends to stay that way unless acted on by an outside force, though an object in motion also tends to stay that way unless acted on by an outside force . In this case and most cases that stalling force is friction or gravity. For some reason however the TV cooker keeps agitating the molecules far longer than it should and thus leads to some catastrophic cooking errors. Not as bad as mom is in the kitchen, but still pretty bad." Berry rambled. " It's likely some sort of harmonic resonance that I haven't figured out yet with the crystals I use, probably just some more fine tuning. So what did you all come here for again?"

"Errr to ask some questions..." Elusive started to ask though he's cut off as Dawn unrolls her drawing in front of Berry's face.

The tall unicorn looks at it a moment as she cleans the rest of the peanut butter off the spoon with her tongue.

"Oh for the love of Celestia don't put the spoon back in the jar after you've licked it..." Beryl shouted and was ignored as Berry did just that.

"That's kinda a neat drawing of Daddy.. did you draw that yourself Dawn? Not bad at all, you should talk to Brushie though, he's the big time artistic one in the family." Berry continues.

The others blink at that statement though Dawn huffs in annoyance.

"S'not Daddy." Dawn pouted.

"Oops Kinda looks like him in that bone armor of his, Gray fur, black armor. Ah well sorry about that. Any way what else was going on?" Berry chimed looking at Elusive and the others.

"Hey Berry, you've still got a class at two you need to get too." Beryl shouts. "You've got twenty minutes to clean up and get out the door. Professor Snipehunt isn't gonna like it if you're late again."

"Oh please it's just Equestrian Lit, if it wasn't required for the doctorate no one would even take it at all." Berry sighed looking at the glare the little dragon was giving her. " Fiiiiiiine... let me get a shower and I'll go. Sorry guys but I'm in too much a rush to play today it seems."

Berry picks Dawn up in her magic floating the annoyed Kirin filly over to her friends before heading into the back part of her lab. " Stop by tomorrow I think I'm clear of classes after two..."

"After four." Beryl Corrects." You always forget the Griffon Kingdoms history class."

"Cause it's really really boring." Berry yells back out of her room. Talon ruffled his feathers in annoyance at that." Sorry Talon."

"Berry just so I do not seem a crook, might I borrow this … tome... manual..." Rynthia shouts.

"Book?" Beryl asked getting a glare from the Zebra.

"Sure I guess. Which one?

"Dreamscapes and nightmares." Beryl answered noting the books cover as Rynthia looked it over. "The one your mom gave you."

"Oh sure go ahead." Berry yelled the sound of a shower starting is cut off as the red maned Berry pokes her head out of the door again , her mane soaked to her head and plastered over her form. Two of the four Guards blushed and tried to look away while the lone female guard of the bunch smacked one of them with her wing giving him an angry glare. "Just bring it back before you leave. I guess mom started you on that stuff too, never could wrap my head around it no matter how many lectures Princess Twilight gave."

Thank you, I will bring it back to ... here..., your apartment... I have no idea where I was going with that one." Rynthia muttered tucking the book into a saddle bag as the non blushing Guards forced all the others out to let Berry get cleaned up in peace.

"It's not Daddy..." growled Dawn glaring down at the picture in her claws.

===========================================================

[Pie Rock Farm ]

Discord tilted his head slightly to the left, then back to the right as he stared at the oddly positioned rock, Holder's boulder, or what ever it was called. He was told the story of it once, but it got filed away into useless information with a small tag listing it as a 'Do not touch' simply to keep the rest of the Pie family happy.

Still watching a rock was better than the alternative which was speaking with Pinkie Pie's siblings.

Marble was alright if as skittish and boring as Fluttershy. The sole interesting thing about her was she had a harem of colts and Stallions vying for her affection and the quiet mare panicked every time it was brought up.

Maud on the other hoof was actually a rather frighting creature who was not thrilled that Pinkie and he were a thing... maybe... to be honest it was hard to tell what Maud was thinking, her tone didn't change so he couldn't even tell if she was being sarcastic or anything, That she was married to his former rival in love for Pinkie didn't help matters, even though the pair of them had buried the hatchet so to speak.

Discord hoped no one dug it up again, there were only so many times he could ruin Celestia's flower bed in order to bury something.

Limestone he almost enjoyed, but she was more than willing to turn her attitude on any one , including Pinkie and that didn't sit well with him even if the pink pony didn't seem to notice or mind.

Then there were Pinkie's parents. They seemed alright, but Discord still got chills thinking about the talk he had with Igneous about his daughter. How a simple earth pony farmer had managed to scare the pants off of him when he didn't even wear pants was beyond even the former god of chaos.

"There you are Dissy. What are you doing out here?" shouted a voice along with a faint pronging sound like a spring as Pinkie Pie bounded over jumping up to land on his shoulders choking him in a hug.

Discord couldn't help but smile at that, if there was one choice he had made in his life that he felt was the right one, there were plenty he felt were right of course but this is for expositions sake, it was what he did for Pinkie Pie.

While not a secret to many the pair had actually wed a few years ago, with only Twilight and Celestia protesting the union, which meant it happened any way simply due to Regent Jer'rahd Kaisur presiding and having the pair of Princesses escorted out of the rebuilt Darwhinny Keep the moment they started to object.

In truth the angry Kirin was perhaps one of the few friends he had actually made since his second escape from lawnornimentitus. Bleu of course was one as well, but as a Element of Laughter herself it was almost a given. Jer'rahd didn't put up with much of his usual chaos, but he tolerated far more of it than Celestia, going so far as to offer suggestions sometimes when a prank or idea would target Celestia or Twilight. Of course this meant Luna was fully off limits, not officially mind you, but Discord didn't feel like making the Demon of Dullahan mad at him for any reason.

"Just came out for a bit of air is all, it was getting to be a bit much inside. "Discord mutters as Pinkie drops back to the ground noticing that Maud and Cheese were walking up as well. Well, Maud was walking, cheese was bouncing around her like an erratic green cheese moon orbiting a big ball of salt water with a little bit of land.

"Oh that was just moms cooking. You get used to it." Pinkie Pie grinned. " Any way you missed the big announcements!"

"Oh?" Discord glances back noticing that Cheese Sandwich had frozen in place with a stunned look as he was reminded of the announcement.

"I'm pregnant." Maud states flatly as ever before offering a brown paper bag to her husband.

Cheese snatches the bag breathing heavily into it before falling over on the ground and rolling around still breathing into the bag.

Discord watches him roll by with a smirk debating the best way to make his former nemesis suffer more.

"Isn't that great, I think it's great and it gets better.!" Pinkie pie shouts hopping over Cheese as he rolls past.

" I cannot imagine how." Discord chuckled debating on polka dot paint or taffy.

"Cause Maud is two months along and so am I!?" Pinkie chimes in.

Discord was about to snap his fingers and let Cheese roll though some blueberry salt water taffy when he froze in place."What?" Discord turned slowly crouching to eye level with Pinkie his eyes wide.

"Oh right I knew I forgot to tell some one the news. Yeah evidently I'm pregnant too, Maud and I are gonna have foals about the same time. You're gonna be a daddy too, like Cheese is." Pinkie Pie announced chipperly.

Discord slowly blinked staring at the bouncing pony. He slowly reached over to Maud who offers him a paper bag as well. He quickly grabs it and starts breathing into it rapidly falling over onto the ground and rolling around like Cheese Sandwich.

"I think he took it well." Pinkie nods as Maud watches the pair of soon to be fathers roll around them on the ground hyperventilating.

===================================================

[ Elsewhere ]

The snap and crack of bone and the tearing and ripping of sinew being unraveled along with the hum of arcane power filled the caverns. A large gathering of creatures huddled in the darkness watching the swirling mass of blood and dark magic slowly growing in the air over the center of the chamber.

"Not enough." Booms a voice, the utterance more like a curse.

A lash of energy whips our of the swirling mess, wrapping around one of the figures huddled in the dark yanking it into the growing mass. The large troll screamed as its fur and flesh were stripped from its body in large swathes, peeled from it's form to join the swirling mass that had snatched it up. Sinew and muscle unraveling like cords from it's bones as the blood flowed freely sucked into the vortex without a drop touching the sandy cavern floor. The foul beasts eyes ruptured, it's organs pulled out and drawn into the mass like some one slurping up spaghetti until all that was left of the luckless Troll was bloodied bones and even these were soon powdered to joined the mass.

The others in the chamber wished to flee , butt hey couldn't the thing that called them, that controlled them, that had made them, had told them they could not, and thus they could not. Still several had backed off as far as the order would allow, though even those trying to hide were still snatched up if they had something the mass in the rooms center wanted.

"Good... that should be adequate."

The mass started to condense, the bone matter and sinew forming together bit by bit to create a form in the center of the swirling mass, little more than a thread bare skeleton at first. Parts fly off as they are discarded as being unneeded, the wet splatters of meat hitting rock echoed briefly before the sound of the other trolls fighting over the scraps drown out any more noise beyond the hum.

The red and brown mass of magic and body parts solidifies further, showing the vague outline and shape of what seemed to be a pony. Muscle and skin formed over it as the organs joined and fused together, glimpses of a gray rectangle of some kind could be seen in the chest of the creature before the skin closed over it .

White fur formed over the creature, the colors shifting and changing at each small movement changing the very coloration of the fur dependent on how the body was standing near a light source.

More sinew and bone formed along the back, thick muscles and sharp bones jutted from near the shoulders of the pony like thing, forming a pair of large wings that suddenly started sprouting glimmering white feathers that matched the coat.

A mane and tail of rainbow colored hair sprouted from it's flank and head, flowing out with a life of it's own like a sunset reflected in a still pond.

No mark adorned the stallions flank, though more bone formed at his temple, swirling about it in a great spiral of a horn that seemed to be made of clear crystal.

The stallions eye's opened slowly, light gray orbs focused on nothing as the body jerked suddenly stretching limbs and wings wide, it's mouth open in a violent scream before a harsh shudder and a jolt of power silenced it causing the form to relax as it floated lower, drifting down to the cavern floor.

The alicorn stood motionless for a moment it's eyes half closed with it's head lowered.

It jerked again. It's head whipping up, eyes wide as is gasped, the sharp intake of breath echoing around the suddenly silent cavern before it staggered back coughing loudly and trying to draw breath with middling success.

After about ten minutes of this the alicorn's breathing was under control again and it lifted it's head. Gray eyes regarding the remaining Trolls all of whom moved back darting off into the rooms dark corners again. It stepped forward, the soft sand under hoof shifting with the stallions weight.

The white alicorn grind looking down at the hoof print he had left in the sand.

For the second time in the untold history of Equss, Zachle, the Gray Grimiore walked the lands.


	7. Through the Fire and the Flames

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Through the Fire and the Flames

[ New Canterlot Castle Three years after the defeat of Tirek.]

" So have you two gotten your unit placements yet?" Jer'rahd asked tearing into a piece of garlic bread looking over the table at Pip curiously.

"Not yet, though there was talk of putting me out on our border with the Diamond Dog nation." Pip responded after taking a small sip from his glass.

"Oh nice. That was my first assignment too. Course that was in the middle of a full blown war, nothing much there now but an occasional rescue operation for some lost travelers or the occasional bandit." Jer'rahd admits looking down at his plate briefly staring at the mixed vegetables and the small piece of chicken that sat, still untouched, on the plate. He hated the taste of the bird, though he was told by his doctor... aka his eldest daughter Orange who was sitting at the far end of the table from him, that Kirin needed at least some meat based proteins in their diet. Jer'rahd had protested that he was pretty much immortal and he didn't need any set food groups to get by. And Orange had of course responded with the results of a bad diet, starting out with a rather detailed description of constipation that made Jer'rahd relent almost immediately.

Orange, Ice Berry and even Brush had shown up for Pip's graduation ceremony and some of them got to meet Scootaloo for the first time. Brush's mare friend Diamond Tiara couldn't miss time from her business classes and Hunter did everything in his power to avoid Jer'rahd, though they sent their well wishes to Pip any way.

Berry had liked Scootaloo from when they went to school together and introduced her to Beryl, the little dragon was barely a year old and he was already wearing an expression like he was tired of being shown off to every one by the energetic filly. Scootaloo had seemed a little distraught that the dragonling was one of Bleu and Spike's clutch, but she recovered from the information rather quickly.

Brush was the same as his sister and knew Scootaloo from school. He was rather fascinated by the coloration of her wings when they were lit up, likely he had a few paintings in mind for them.

Orange watched Scootaloo warily for a while though the pair had had a small discussion before dinner about pegasi medicine and training regimes for full wing movement, after wards Orange seemed to open up to her a little more.

Jer'rahd really didn't have any issue with her. She was cute enough and Pip was happy with her so he was fine on that front, plus her training scores were impressive showing she was no slouch. Not that he doubted that she would be, knowing who her parents were.

"Might have the same posting myself. There's a Griffon embassy in the northern reaches that tends to rotate a few neutral nation Guards through it every so often when talks between the Harpies and Diamond Dogs happen." Scootaloo added." Seems kinda boring to me, but it sounds good for a first post."

"Trust me, boring is far preferable to the alternative. Besides you don't need to worry about that anyway . Sky Shroud Keep has a brawl or three every time the Griffons, Harpies, and Diamond Dogs meet. Things might be a little different now but I doubt it. Expect to practice submission holds quite a bit if you are posted there." Jer'rahd contemplates glancing over to Dawn who sat next to him in her high chair. The little Kirin was making her usual mess and had mashed her tiny bit of chicken into paste and was scooping it up with the remains of a small chunk of ruby she had been gnawing on. He had tried a gem stone once to see if he could eat them and all he wound up tasting was his own teeth.

Scootaloo was blending in rather well. She was eating dinner with every one with very little issue and seemed to fit in, if not perfectly, well enough for her first meeting with the Kaisur family.

Well mostly. There was the one section of the table next to Jer'rahd that every one else did their best to try and ignore.

Luna sat staring at the orange pegasus with a look that would kill lesser ponies and probably stun a number of stronger ones. Luna was still not happy that Pip had risked his life for the mare in the battle with Tirek, Let alone that said mare was now dating him, her youngest son. If one could glare daggers, Luna's eyes were firing balista bolts. She had bent numerous pieces of silverware in her magic, cut through the ceramic plate with a butter knife.. as well as part of the table, and turned most of her food into unidentifiable mush with out eating any of it. Still to Scootaloo's credit, she seemed unphased by the 'disproving mother' glare directed at her, that or she simply didn't notice it.

In either case watching Luna's frustration growing at trying and failing to intimidate the orange pegasus was amusing Jer'rahd to no end.

Jer'rahd sighed looking back down at the chicken. Maybe he could hide it... perfect idea. Time to smother this awful bit of supposed food.

"Pass the ketchup please." Jer'rahd asked.

===============================================================

[Crystal Empire, Current day 1300 hours]

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..." Dawn pauses to inhale a breath, clinging to the door frame with two claws while flailing her wings and tail. "... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I dun wanna take a nap!"

Cadence frowned, her eyes narrowing as she carried the comically flailing Kirin foal into one of the Guest rooms that had been prepared for the Royal Foals to sleep in. Or tried too, the orange Kirin had a death grip on the door frame. Cadence had been a foal sitter to spoiled noble brats, rambunctious Diamond Dog pups of dignitaries, and one very smart and sneaky little purple book worm. She had raised a shape shifter who could be anything he wanted at all, and a daughter with a devious streak a league wide without anything other than a few minor issues.

Then there was Dawn.

She wasn't spoiled, she wasn't devious, she wasn't even that sneaky. In fact she was just like every other 'normal' six year old Princess Cadence had ever foal sat in the past.

The problem was she cranked 'normal six year old' up to eleven, yanked off the knob then fiddled with the exposed wires until it rose to fourteen.

This coupled with the fact she never seemed to tire until right up to the moment she passed out made things even worse. Cadence had no idea how to read her, her personality and the subtle hints that most foals gave off about themselves were allover the place with this one. She also acted like she didn't try to hide from, fight, or argue her way out of a nap even single time she came to visit, only to fail every time.

While it was true the foals were getting too old for naps and Cadence was certain that Rynthia and Talon had books stashed some where, at least they were quiet, Cadence was the one who really needed the nap.

After the group returned from visiting Berry and the hour of their nap approached, Dawn had begun perhaps one of the most rambunctious games of hide and seek/ tag, that she had ever started. Some how she managed to get every one of the foals, but Rynthia and Talon, involved and had also managed to get the entire castle staff and nearly all the Guards involved in one way or another.

There were quite a few times where Shining and Cadence had thought they found her hiding some where only to discover it was a maid or a off duty Guard the little filly had managed to convince to join the game without telling them the real stakes.

She and Shining had cornered her once only for the little Kirin to yell out' SMOKEBOMB!' and throw something at their hooves . The couple reared back wondering how she got anything like that only for a small rubber frog to bounce against their legs, though the Kirin had taken advantage of the momentary distraction and run off again.

Still involving the Guards had turned out to be the foals down fall as every one she and Shining had found, then set out to help look for the hiding foals. After hours they were all finally found in one of Sombra's old storage rooms. One that required four spoken passwords and a interpretive dance to get into, how they managed it still boggled Cadence's mind.

Shining had won the coin toss and so he was putting, Shin, Glimmer, and Elusive into bed. Talon and Rynthia had already climbed into their beds and were watching as Cadence struggled to keep a hold of Dawn. The orange Kirin was a slippery one, even trying to hold her with magic wasn't a hundred percent sure to keep hold of her, and Cadence didn't want ANOTHER encounter with the filly's claws. Dawn wouldn't intentionally try to hurt her, but with how she was flailing about...

"Dawn." Rynthia stated loudly drawing the Kirin's attention away from clinging to the door frame.

The little zebra nodded slightly at the Kirin. Dawn grinned and suddenly let go of the doorway, kicking off it with such speed that she slipped free of Cadence's magic and rolled across the floor. Shining moved to intercept her though the Kirin ignored the window he was guarding and lept right into bed.

"Turn out the light, sleepy time now." Dawn stated flatly diving under the covers and making odd little 'honk shoo ' noises like she was already asleep.

Rynthia slapped her face with her hoof as Cadence and Shining stared at the hidden Kirin. A slow glance to the others showed most of them already asleep, or at least pretending to be. The pair of adults looked to each other and bolted out of the room before anything changed from the quiet peace that had settled.

Shutting the door behind them and warding it just in case, Cadence glowered staring over at Shining Armor. 

"Remind me to strongly suggest neutering both Luna and Jer'rahd so they don't have any more foals like that."

"How about we just agree they owe us again and get a free vacation and foal sitters out of it." Shining suggested with a nervous chuckle. "Same as last time."

"That works too." Cadence grumbled.

============================================================

Inside the nap room the six foals sat up suddenly looking to the door as Shin darted up to it and put a oversized bunny ear to the door before hopping back towards the others. "Okay sounds like they left."

"I think you might have over done it this time Dawn." Elusive pointed out." Auntie Cadence looked really mad."

"It'll be fine... did you do it?" Dawn stage whispers with a grin as she sits up in the bed.

"Yes. We managed to get all the materials back here. With your over the top drama no one noticed Shin, Elusive and I hiding the packets of materials we needed." Glimmer sighed.

"We have the spell prepared and with a little work with the material components we will be ready to go. " Talon commented as he and Rynthia hop out of bed to gather the small bits of materials to grind them together. The mixture would make a soft blue paint that would be put on the head boards of the beds. According to the book Rynthia borrowed, this would allow any one with the mark on their bed to meet others with the mark in the dream world.

The foals were not sure if it would work , though now that they had a face to go with their nightmares they didn't want to have to deal with it again on their own.

=================================================== 

[ White Tail Woods, early morning ]

" …. So over here's where the new orchard is gonna go. We cleared a buncha tha dead trees from around where tha fight took place a while back and tha lands been sitting here unused. There's a small plot of wild Zap Apples were already cultivating on tha far end, but I wanna get a regular orchard set up here too." Applebloom explained gesturing to the clearing with a hoof to her sister, brother and their respective mates.

"Looks like it's be a nice sized orchard. Prolly bout a hundred or so trees. " Applejack comments. " What do yah think Mac?"

"Hundred and thirty six." Big Mac states after staring at the field for a while, though most of his attention was on his three year old son, Zap, running around with the still cutie mark-less disaster trio of Apple Blossom, Dandelion , and Butterscotch who half played with their little cousin half plotted how they could get their cutiemarks while visiting their aunt. Rainbow Dash kept glancing back as well as she flitted around Mac like a drunk bumble bee already showing she was rather far along with their second foal, and none too thrilled about it this time either. At least with as much as she complained to every one about it. The part that worried him most however was the sheer number of Elk around who were keeping a closer eye on the foals than even he was. Applebloom must have said something... either that or they all still recalled the last visit and what happened with the maticore.

Applejack paused a moment looking over at Fluttershy, who was highly distracted by the little creatures that helped the Elk shoot their bows. AppleJack couldn't remember what they were called , but evidently they had some what of a bad time of it after the Wedding of Cadence and Shining Armor as Chrysalis had landed in their village. It was interesting story and many of them wound up here after that. Still her mare friend seemed happy chatting with the little things, so she wasn't gonna interrupt.

" So I got a question. Why are you guys setting up a village so far away from the crater. Don't you need to keep an eye on that Tirek tree or something?" Rainbow Dash asked suddenly.

"We are. Couple Patrols over there too. We already shut down some crazy minotaur who wanted to drop an amusement park in the crater. But thing is any one like me who can hear tha spirits can hear Tirek in his prison. And lemmi tell yah, he don't shut up, ever." Applebloom grumbled rolling her eyes.

"Well that splains that, but not tha sudden need to increase yer food production. I see a lot more than just some apple orchards being cleared. I see some rows of pecan, walnut , pear and a lotta other trees filling all tha space around here. Plus them shelters you got don't look like their made tah be permanent housing." Applejack points out.

"They're not. That big clearing over there's where the actual Lololog village is gonna be. There are going to be a great number of Elk coming to live here considering this place is being thought of as the new capitol after all I've been doing to get all tha Elk in Equss back together. We're waiting right now though." Applebloom stated.

"Waiting on what?" Dash questioned.

"Turns out there's a ton more Elk on other continents than there are here in Equestria. Aside from the Subterranean Watipi, we've got some flying Avarial's and a couple different seagoing tribes. The Mer knew about a few other races over seas and talked some of them into coming here. They are bringing with them a few tree shapers that can rework and reshape the trees themselves into homes and buildings. Gonna see if they ken make my house an apple tree." Applebloom chuckled.

"Speaking of the Watipi..." Big Mac grinned with Dash and AJ showing the same sly smile.

"Ah crap ya'll were waiting fer me to mention them wern't yah?" Applebloom frowns her ears flattening to her head.

"Well given last we heard one of tha leaders of that tribe was courting yah. I spect we would be interested in what our little sis was up to." Applejack chuckled.

" Ugh... Drakast is back home with some business, an Flowing Stream'll be back here later he's on patrol around tha crater today." Applebloom sighed.

" Ahh so yah picked tha Elk here? Seemed a impressive feller, little on tha thin side , but most Elk's seem that way tah me." Applejack nods sagely.

"No ah didn't pick Flowing Stream." Applebloom sighed hiding her face with her hoof.

"Awesome you went with tall dark and mysterious. Nice, gotta love the exotic ones." Rainbow Dash laughs.

"Hmmph." Big Mac snorted glaring at his wife.

"Oh don't even give me that Macky, or need I remind you that this is the second foal I let you put in me..." Dash snorted back, patting her belly as she glared at the larger earth pony.

"Err nah … didn't choose him either..." Applebloom grumbled.

"Oh? So back tah being single then. Nothing wrong with that, you got a lot to do..." Applejack nods."

"Ain't single either..."

"Found some one else?" Dash asked as Applebloom shrugged

"Errr... yah running out of options here Bloom." Applejack commented her eyes narrowing.

"Ah didn't chose either of them, ah chose um both as mai consorts." Applebloom blurted out slapping her hooves to her face as she turns red and the three stare at her.

Dash of course broke the silence first. "Holy crap, you bagged both of um, damn girl, you go!"

The other two Apples glared at the cyan pegasus before Applejack glared up at her sister.

"Two of um... that don't really sit right..."

"Look shush and listen... and it ain't just them two, there's three others as well from differing tribes. Seems ah'm a heck of a lot bigger of a deal than ah thought ah was and any Elk any where that's heard of me is doing their damnedest to link their tribes tah mine in some way or another. Some of them are even willing tah kill each other over the chance. Now ah ain't much fer building mah own harem like I'm a Saddle Arabian, but ah like all these bucks, and tha one Doe, in some shape or another and this is all adding up to what Twilight called political marriages. From what ah ken tell some Elk do this sorta thing any way, but it's usually one Buck and a buncha Does in a herd. Mai situation's just the other way around. Ah got a buncha bucks, and one Doe, rather than a buncha Does and one Buck. It feels weird but ah got a couple of friends and family saying go for it."

"Go for it!" Dash cackles.

"See" Applebloom grinned.

"What other family is gonna tell yah tah be dating a buncha Stallions!?" Applejack ranted. " It's Braeburn ain't it.. that womanizer..."

"Well a bit but lately it's been Granny Smith." Applebloom stated.

"What? Applebloom, Granny's been dead fer two years now, she sure didn't tell yah that when ah was here with her last." AppleJack snorted.

"Yah act like yer not talking tah some one who talks with tha dead half tha time, how tha heck you think ah knew about that pot ah recipes she hid in the back hidden panel of tha cabinet at tha house. Or tha bit's she saved up in tha floor boards. She told me about all that. And she told me tah do what ah wanted an jus have fun with all these Bucks. They're all okay with the others and there all interesting tah me in their own ways..."

"But..." Applejack begins before big Mac raised a hoof cutting her off.

"S'fine . We gotta accept her choices sis . She ain't a filly any more. Big Mac stated calmly before turning to his little sister. "So what are their names?"

"Flowing Stream and Drakast you know. There's MapleBerry from tha Ice Crystal Tribe, Clam Shell from tha Mer Tribe, that's one of tha coastal ones. Harlequin, she's from a far southern tribe, dun know much about them yet, and Aensland from the one tha tree shapers are coming from." Applebloom recalled.

"Thanks sis, that's all ah needed." Big Mac grinned and ruffled his little sisters mane before turning and walking off.

"Where's he going?" Applejack questions watching her large brother head off.

"Where do you think?" Dash chuckled." He's the big brother and all these Elk wanna be with his little sister. So he's going to have a 'talk' with them."

"Oh." Applejack smirked. " Maybe ah should help out..."

"Ah crap!... BIG MAC! YOU GET YER FLANK BACK HERE RIGHT NAO! AH BARELY GOT UM ALL CALMED DOWN AFTER UNCLE JER'RAHD CAME THROUGH!" Applebloom shouted galloping after her brother.

============================================================

[ Isle of Tamberlane 1500 hours]

The air smelled stale and a unseasonably cold wind blew across the large black sand beach that was the only clear spot on the island not covered by the sickly yellow dome. The Dragons had landed on the shore line and despite Bleu's protests taken off not long after, leaving the white alicorn Princess and the gray and orange scaled Kirin alone on the shore, something the Kirin walked away from rather quickly.

Jer'rahd and Celestia's goal was the far end of the beach, where one of the collapsed train trestles was. The thick sea stone pillar had toppled over when the island formed under it. The back end of the crashed train was just on the other side of that fallen trestle. The cars that had been cut off by the forming of the isle lay scattered on both sides of the shield, though the passenger cars that were their goal were on the other side of the yellowy wall.

The two moved at a sedate pace as they crossed the black sand, the size of it more like a desert than a simple shoreline. The pair could see old rusted farming equipment and the fallen remains of barns and small sheds on this side of the shield. Clearly this used to have been farm land at one point in the island's past.

"So do you expect him to fight?" Celestia asked.

"Yes." Jer'rahd responded glancing down as his hoof crunched on something that looked like a petrified corn stalk, or maybe a femur, he wasn't going to investigate.

"And you didn't bring your armor?" Celestia asked watching Jer'rahds tail whip.

"It doesn't fit any more, I was planning on giving it to Pip, but he has no way to take it off an on. It's back in New Canterlot with all that other crap Sparkle is studying. Where did she get half that stuff?"

"Some of it came from Sombra's collections in the empire. Some of it, like the mirror was recovered from the Blue Blood estates when they were seized. Cadence remembered that her grandmother told her it was supposed to be magic, but she doesn't know what kind." Celestia sighed looking over the barren landscape. "She wants to make sure everything's safe before we secure the more dangerous artifacts in Slate's Armory back at the Empire."

"The Element's were moved there already."Jer'rahd sighed. " Not happy with that, but it's not as if we could use them now any way."

"True." Celestia sighed as the pair of them stop at the edge of the dome.

"Train cars exactly as reported. Nothing moving that I saw coming up." Jer'rahd grumbled looking at the now solid yellow dome. The massive shield had been translucent though it had grown more opaque as they approached it and now it was solid yellow.

'That doesn't mean anything." Celestia snorted.

"You don't have to tell me that, Luna's not gonna be taken out by a bucking train wreck after all we've been through." Jer'rahd smirked.

"Neither will Twilight, though I do worry about the other three. " Celestia nods poking the dome with a hoof noting how it was more springy of a shield than a solid one. " So what now?"

"We knock and see if any ones home."

============================================================ 

[ New Canterlot ]

The room was silent and pitch black, a hidden vault in the newly rebuilt castle that housed numerous objects of curiosity and study. Here were the remnants of the Royal treasury. Here were items from the WCP classified section. Here were objects of power waiting to be studied , sealed and shipped to be locked away.

Dust covered everything in the silent room, A testament to Princess Twilight Sparkle's busy schedule that she couldn't keep up with the amount of items to be studied that she had access to.

A faint flicker of light was seen as a steady hum began. The light grew brighter and the sound turned more to like a soft static as the air was filled with the smell of grass and plant life with the lingering sent of popcorn and hotdogs cooking. There was a louder buzz and one of the cloth covered items moved suddenly, a figure emerging into the under side of a tarp.

There was a yelp and a series of curses as the figure staggered forward, caught in the tarp as it got hung up on the object, tripping the form up before finally it fell free and sending the hidden form tumbling into the piled objects with a massive crash.

The figure froze in the darkness, breath held as it's ears perked up listening to any sounds of alarm or any one coming to investigate. After there was no response to the crash the figure fought to pull free of the tarp finally yanking it's head out and whipping it's head. There was a faint glow around the figures horn and the room lit up showing the piled tons of junk scattered around in chests and boxes, most of them covered with tarps or other things to keep the dust from them.

The light fell upon the uncovered object. A ordinary looking standing full length mirror with a horse shoe shaped rim lined with pink gems. It's standing base was also lined with horseshoes and attached to the top was a smaller window with the outline of a pony inside of it.

A small sigh emerged from the figure as they approached the mirror one amber hoof lifting to steady the item on it's stand. The unicorn reflected in the mirror had a light amber coat with a brilliant yellow and red striped mane and tail and her cutie mark was of a red and yellow shimmering sun.

"Ugh what the heck happened to this place. Did they move the royal treasury? Bah no matter, it shouldn't take me long to find the crown of magic." Sunset Shimmer smirked.


	8. I Ran so far away

Stories in Stone

Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

I Ran [ so far away ] 

[ Tamberlane, late afternoon]

An explosion rocked the whole island, jarring Luna awake suddenly as a series of other Equss shattering kabooms followed, the reverberations of the sound bouncing around the rock dying down just enough for the screams to be heard before there was another explosion.

Luna winced as she lifted her head feeling like she had been in a train wreck... oh wait, she had. She kept her eyes closed a moment taking stock, she didn't seem to have any life threatening injuries , though she was quite sore though the bruises likely had long since faded. She opened her eyes next and took note of her surroundings, she was in some dark room that was most decidedly not a hospital. Moldy stone walls, strange metallic bars that seemed to be sapping her magic and a large number of chains around her neck and limbs.

The mare sighed. Yup, she was a prisoner again.

The Changeling Queen shuddered a little recalling the last time she was taken prisoner, but at least she wasn't in a hanging display cage waiting to be mounted by a dragon god this time... So far any way.

Still the explosions rocking the room sounded promising. She could feel the spice of anger, the sharp tang of rage, and the delightfully sweet and crisp taste of love. A mix she knew very well after these last six years.

Who ever had captured her had made the mistake of letting Jer'rahd know she was here. At this rate she might never actually see what had captured her... at least not intact. Still something felt off, there were other feelings too, but not nearly as many as they should be. There was a sharp bite of sour hate and spite she didn't recognize, another fiery tasting anger and love mix that was surely her sister. A grape like taste of wonder and curiosity coupled with annoyance and hint of anger, that was surely Twilight Sparkle. Luna had no idea how the purple mare managed to 'feel' grape flavored, but she wasn't the only one who tasted it. Perhaps it was the same way Applejack managed to taste like an apple.

There was an oddly minty taste mixed with love and anger and two others that she couldn't identify and were too weak to taste over the flood of other emotions in the area. She didn't see any one else here with her however. It just seemed like the one room divided by cell bars with a staircase going down on the far side of it. Perhaps they were above or below her? 

All of the emotions felt muted as well. As if something was masking it, perhaps the bars or the chains she wore had traces of star metal? It didn't feel like that though, it felt like some great power was trying to quash her abilities.

Another massive explosion shook her out of her confusion as a wall on the far side of the bars collapsed in a shower of stone and dust. A figure stepped through the hole, hidden in the dust cloud, all Luna could see was it's silhouette and a two points of light glowing bright red and green.

"What kept you dear?" Luna chuckled smiling.

"Had to drop the kids off at the sitters first. You know how that goes. You alright Luna? Any holes?" Jer'rahd smirked His amber tail flicking against his legs clearing off the dust from his fur.

"No more than I had before I left. Mind getting me out of this place? The mildew's playing havoc with my nose." Luna sighed.

"In a minute. She's in here!" Jer'rahd called out back through the hole. Luna glanced up curiously at what would be more of a priority to her husband than getting her free.

A figure stepped through the hole and at first Luna thought it her sister, though the black coated mare was decidedly not Celestia. Wavy lengths of amber mane and tail flowed around her lithe form, a long spiraled horn topped her head and a pair of green eyes studied Luna curiously as the figure entered the room. Her cutie mark was an open book with a green quill over it, the pages of the tome blank. Luna's eyes widened at the pair of wings the mare had on her back as she recognized the pony immediately.

"You?!" Luna gasped.

"Is Celestia delt with?" Jer'rahd asked?"

"Of course my grandson... just as promised." The mare tittered.

"Good... Hail Avaianna..." Jer'rahd stated with a grin.

Luna blinked then narrowed her eyes, the mare let out an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes.

"By the stars, wow, you are REALLY bad at this." Luna stated flatly.

The two of them blinked and looked at Luna.

"Seriously? Hail Avianna? You might as well have had Jer'rahd say 'Hail Celestia' with how stupid it sounded. What's next? Having Twilight yell 'Hail ignorance?' Oh no.. no, no I got it, Applejack saying 'Hail Pears' Do that one it'll be funnier especially if you can do the accent right." Luna chuckled.

"What?" Jer'rahd asked.

"Oh please. I was the Princess of dreams for centuries, do you not think I can tell when some one it trying to do a fear shock nightmare on me?" Luna grumbled standing up and shaking free the chains like they were nothing, the metal links fading into dust.

"First off Avianna's trapped on the moon. Second I want you to stop wearing my husband's form, that's not even his current form it's how he used to look when he was still a pony and not a Kirin. What ever you are, you are insulting him by trying to take his visage." Luna growled her horn flaring tuning the bars before her to dust as well. " I might not have the full power of this realm any more, but I have always been a lucid dreamer and everything in this place is mine to command. You truly thought you could hurt me in my own dreams?... no that's not it you want terror and fear don't you? Is that what gives you power?"

Another flare of her horn and everything fades around her, the cell the walls and the rubble, even the image of Avaianna fades leaving her looking at the form of Jer'rahd alone.

"Not that it matters as I know the feel of you now and you will not manage this again. Who or what are you?" Luna demanded.

The image of pony Jer'rahd faded away suddenly with a shimmer like that of a road on a hot day. The form underneath was a black scale armored stallion larger than she was. The creatures mane seemed to be made of fire and smoke and flowed with an unseen wind. His long horn was serrated along the top and his pale white glowing eyes spoke of a barely hidden cruelty. Draconic wings sprouted from it's back as it hissed and snapped at Luna baring fangs that would be more at home in a lamprey or leeches maw, the whipping of it's horn forced her to take a step back before the creature crouched and exploded up ward. It's wings leaving a flurry of rubble behind it as they tore through the ceiling and vanished into the void of the dream scape.

"What was that thing?" Luna questioned not liking that it still bore a slight resemblance to her husband. She would have to look into it later with Twilight once she found out what had happened. The former Princess of the Night shook her head and shrugged, forcing herself to wake up for real this time.

=============================================================

It took Luna a moment more to make sure she wasn't still asleep. She bit her tongue lightly feeling a bit of pain signaling the lack of dreaming. Not that she would ever tell Jer'rahd or Pip that she checked whether or not she was dreaming the same way they did. Let them think she just knew if she was asleep or not. Granted she used to know.

She opted to check simply because her situation seemed exactly the same. She was in a cell, wrapped in chains with a staircase leading down on the other side of the room.

It took her a few moments to realize things were not exactly the same. First there was a large door off to her left on the other side of the bars. The same place her dream Jer'rahd had burst through the wall. This place also didn't smell of mildew and mold, it smelled of old dust and dirt with a hint of salt, likely from the ocean though she couldn't tell how far away it was or if it was something else.

She could still sense the emotions she had before and oddly they were still muted, though she could see where the source of four of them came from. There were others in the cell with her, chained up as she was.

One was obviously Twilight Sparkle and Luna noted there were three brownish red rings around her horn. Looking closer they didn't seem to be made of any kind of metal, but oddly seemed some sort of leathery flesh, Luna could have sworn she saw them pulsate slightly.

Next to her was the only other mare she immediately recognized. A lime green unicorn who's horn also sported two of the odd rings and was chained the same as she and Twilight. Lyra Heartstrings, her niece Cadence's former bodyguard and lately a frequent sparing partner with her husband. She was also in a rather delicious relationship with the head of the Blackhoof, Agent Sweetiedrops. The pair of them together was many a Changelings favorite meal as they tasted just like a Fillyscout's thin mint cookie.

The fourth pony was one she felt she should recognize. A gray earth pony with a black mane and tail and musical notation as a cutie mark. For some reason Luna's mind wandered to Platinum Scale and Sweetiebelle while looking at the mare, but she was unsure why.

The final member of the group was one whom Luna also felt she should have recognized, but her name eluded her. A pale blue unicorn mare with white and silvery mane and tail. He cutie mark was not far off a crescent moon with a wand along one side, or perhaps it was a swish of magic. In either case she was the only other one awake and she looked like she was having a panic attack of some kind, the chains she was bound with rattled softly adding a constant metallic clinking to the room. Her horn was also wrapped with two of the fleshy rings.

Luna theorized they might be the source of the muted emotions she felt. Though she needed to take stock of everything first, and calm down the blue mare. Looking down she saw was in her Changeling Queen form, despite having been in her 'just another pegasus, nothing to see here' form while she was on the train,her husbands favorite form to tell the truth. The rings evidently canceled out changeling powers too.

She thought back to the train she recalled it crashing, she and Twilight had quickly put a bubble around the train car the moment they felt the first jarring crash of the first car hitting the shield. Less than a second later the bubble hit the back of the car ahead of it and was flung off the track. Their shields managed to make sure the cars behind the passenger car were not crushed into them nor were the occupants. Still as the car hit the ground and rolled, the group of them was bounced around rather abruptly with Twilight and Luna doing their best to shield the others in the car.

When everything had finally come to a stop Luna recalled dropping her shield to check on everyone and then …. nothing... A sleep spell perhaps? Avery powerful one to have affected both her and Twilight. Still the rings on their horns noted something of some power.

Thinking of those things made Luna think to focus on her magic briefly. Nothing complex, just a simple light spell. She winced the moment she tried, turning green very quickly and cutting off the attempt as waves of nausea hit her like a … well like a train derailing a hitting the ground she supposed.

After a great deal of effect she managed not to revisit what she had eaten earlier, though her stomach and head still felt like they were stuffed full of pus and bile.

A groan from beside her cut off any further thought though the nausea remained. she looked over as Twilight lifted her head, her wings trying to flutter a little, though they were bound as securely in chains as the rest of her.

"Glad to see you are back among the waking world Twilight."Luna stated softly, noting the gray earth pony opened her eyes at the sound of Luna's voice and look over at them as well. She did not seem bothered by the situation and Luna wondered if she had only been pretending to be asleep. The noise did little to ease the fidgeting and chain rattling of the blue mare however.

"I feel like I was in a train wreck." Twilight muttered.

"You were... now don't use your magic it..." Luna began only to witness Twilight's horn glow for a moment and just as quickly dim. She took note that the rings around her horn bulged, showing flashes of purple inside them that matched Twilight's magic. Clearly they were feeding on it. Still the warning didn't come soon enough and clearly Twilight's belly was much softer than Luna's as the new Princess of the Night quite suddenly, and disgustingly, showed every one in the cell what she had for dinner.

Granted the stench of bile and vomit woke the green unicorn with a start, evidently acting like repugnant smelling salts.

"I warned you." Luna chuckled.

"Yes, thank you loads for your timely warning as I was casting..." Twilight snarled trying to spit out the foul taste. "Where are we?"

"Far as I can tell we are at present in a dungeon or prison cell of some sort." The gray earth pony spoke up shifting in her chains away from the pile of vomit.

"Have you seen any one yet?" Luna asked.

"No, I woke up before the rest of you, but no one has been by yet." the earth pony stated flatly.

"Sorry if seems odd to ask, but do I know you? You seem rather familiar to me." Luna asked.

"Octavia Melody. I'm the assistant... I might as well say full time Dean, at the Platinum school of Music in Canterlot."Octavia sighed softly as if bothered by the information she was giving. "I was in Gallopagos for the opening of the new school. One of your friends Bleu Scale is the primary Dean of the school. I do hope she has mentioned me at least once or twice your highness."

"I knew I knew you from some where."Luna admitted. "And call me Luna and call Twilight, Twilight until we can ascertain what is going on. No sense in giving who ever put us in this cell any information they may not know."

"Given how you have five of those things on your horn, I think they may know." Lyra muttered." and Twilight's got three. How many have I got?"

"Two." Twilight answered. " Is every one alright?"

"As well as can be with a puddle of vomit on my hooves and chained to the floor." Lyra snarked.

"Quiet. Something is coming." The blue mare hissed suddenly pulling back as far as the chains allowed into the cells shadows, the clank of them finally going silent.

The group all turned to look at the door as it opened and a long shadow spilled out from the opening. The thud of hooves echoed in the small dungeon as a figure with solid red eyes stepped out into view.

The creature's fur was a grayish blue and at first glance it appeared to be an emaciated ram, but on closer inspection he was simply thin with whip cord like muscles under skin pulled far too tight on his frame. A pair of black gnarled horns rose from his temples, the pair of them faintly glowing sickly yellow with splotches of shadowy gray floating around in the colored mix. Prominent white eyebrows rested over his eyes in a way that seemed to give him a permanent scowl. Like his horns his hooves were jet black and in need of a trim, and every step he took seemed to kick up sparks against the stone floor. There were small sections around his joints and cloven hooves that were devoid of hair, though they seemed to have small patches of scales, like a fish or a snake, that were a inky blue black. He wore a red collar studded with gold disks and spikes with a small silver bell hanging from it over his chest.

"Oh good. I see that you have finally awoken. That doesn't always happen. You lot are the first visitors that have come here in... eons I believe."

Luna blinked at the voice. It wasn't the harsh sounding tones that most of the Ram's she had experience with spoke in. His voice was an eloquent baritone, with an air of class about it that screamed nobility. Captivity aside, Luna didn't like him immediately.

" So this is how you treat all your guests? No wonder you don't get visitors." Lyra snarked.

"Given the last six who came here caused all manner of problems.. I think this is a proper precaution." The Capricorn smirked. " Ah yes where are my manners? My name is..."

"Grogar the necromancer, ruler of the lost country of Tamberlane." Twilight Sparkle stated flatly getting a odd look from the Capricorn.

"Correct... though how did you know that?" Grogar asked sounding a bit surprised.

"Trust me it's just something she does." Luna sighed recalling her first reappearance as Nightmare Moon. " Now that that is out of the way what do you want and why are we in this cell?"

"It's fairly simple the five of you..." Grogar blinks looking in the cell raising a brow and mouthing a number before he shook his head and muttered something about teaching Bray to count. " The four of you are rather interesting. Two musicians and a alicorn. Yes, don't give me that look. I know the difference between a pony god and a pegicorn. I fought two of them for centuries. Then of course there is what ever you are. I cannot say I've seen your like before. The musicians I can use, I doubt my last sirens are still around and I would need to make more, they were quite useful. The alicorn could of course be held to give me what ever I wished from her subjects, as for you strange one... It's been a long time since I've seen something new to cut apart and examine. Perhaps if you are interesting enough I might keep you around as a servant or a plaything, after I learn all I can from your corpse, I do so love the exotic types."

"Yes, although that will not be happening." Octavia snorted.

"Hmph. Bravado... there is always at least one." Grogar chuckled." Surrender to the inevitable."

"What was that ? Luna asked suddenly.

"... I said, Surrender..."

"You surrender ? Good I accept. Now the first thing you are going to do to prove you are sincere in this is to get a mop and clean up her lunch." Luna stated crisply pointing at Twilight." The second thing is to trim your hooves, they look ridiculous and they cannot be comfortable to walk on, a mane cut and some styling would not hurt either. After you are finally presentable we shall talk about the reparations for the destruction of the train line and then perhaps lunch."

Grogar and the others blink at the smirking Changeling Queen, though the Capricorn growls.

"You clearly suffered some sort of head injury during that wreck..."

"And you clearly do not understand the nature of the nest of hornets you just stirred up. What ever plans you have, what ever army you have, what ever defenses you have set up, you had better hope they are very, VERY, good ones. Because you've done something you really shouldn't have and have angered the worst ponies you ever could." Luna grins wider.

"Hmph like any would dare to come here after me. Nothing can threaten me in my land." Grogar snorted.

"Starswirl did." Twilight added catching on to what Luna was getting at. " And with what's coming, you'll wish you only had to deal with him again."

"That fool was lucky, no one can touch me here. No one is coming for yo..." Grogar began before a massive series of booms shake the foundation of the building. The Capricorn's eyes widen at the sound as it repeats.

"Sounds like 'No one' is knocking... I suggest you see who that is. Perhaps if you are civil the will allow you to choose your manner or execution." Luna grinned wide showing rather prominent fangs as Twilight mimics the smile as best she can.

Grogar glares at the mares turning suddenly and storming out of the room slamming the door behind him, the sound of several locks being engaged echoing in the room.

The four of them stare at the door a moment before Lyra sighed.

"Well that was fun, so what do we do now? Wait like Princesses for our knights to rescue us?" The green mare muttered, though Luna could feel a small surge of love from her as she was clearly thinking about Bon Bon.

"I for one am not the damsel in distress type." Luna snorts.

"Then how do you suppose we get out of here with out your magic? I am an earth pony but I'm not strong enough to break the chains." Octavia commented.

"Maybe we didn't need to talk so much crap to him? I know you might be old hat at this Luna but this is my first foal napping thank you very much." Twilight grumbled. "I'm freaked out about this now particularly without access to my magic..."

"I'm surprised Jer'rahd hasn't taught you how to deal with out it." Luna commented.

"Given my connection to the Brilliant Dawn and how often I've been around the Waning Moon there's no way to mute my magic that I can't push past easily and that was before becoming a Princess. Although now there seems to be a way and I'm very curious to study one of these rings... with out it being on my horn." Twilight muttered. " So did we need to antagonize him?"

"In this case yes. I needed to cause a distraction." Luna nodded.

"A distraction? For what?" Lyra questioned.

"Look to your right. Notice any pony missing?" Luna grinned.

The others glance to their right and notice little at the end of the cell but a pile of chains and opened locks.

"Wait what happened to Trixie?" Octavia blinked.

"Trixie is here?" Twilight's eyes widened. "That's who spoke earlier?"

"How did she get out of the chains?" Lyra demanded.

"A great and powerful magician never reveals her tricks..." A voice stated softly, a figure stepping up from the stair well across the room. "Besides, after everything I went through during the War of Gods do you really think I wouldn't learn every single possible escape artist trick that exists?"

The mare moved forward glancing hesitantly to the door.

"How did you get out there?" Lyra stammered.

Trixie smirked and pulled on the cell door, the door opening with out any effort.

"The door is not locked..." Trixie smirked.

"But the rest of it , Grogar was right there... Twilight stammered, "You've got those things on your horn too..."

"Yes, yes, be amazed at the great and Powerful Trixie's skills. But do it later, right now we need to get out of here." Trixie hisses.

"Agreed. Also Twilight tell us what you know of this creature?" Luna asked as Trixie started working on the locks to her chains. "We need to quickly find out luggage as well. I have a communication Crystal and I expect Twilight has her sword."

=============================================================

[Outside]

Jer'rahd looked up at the wrecked train car Celestia was swinging in the air to beat against the yellowy shield. It had started as one of the more intact ones remaining and was now little more than a hunk of scrap iron.

"You're paying for that." Jer'rahd stated calmly as the Princess of the Sun snorted and tossed the hunk of metal back across the beach.

" Like any one would know that the mangled remains of the train car was not the result of the crash." Celestia growled.

"They will because I'm gonna tell the Friendship Express head office. You should have just used a rock." Jer'rahd threatened.

"Agreed, next time I will just use your head." Celestia growled glaring at the Kirin.

"Seemed to work though. Look." Jer'rahd nodded towards the shield as the formerly sickly yellow wall shifted and turned clear, showing more wrecked train cars and a single figure staring at the pair of them.

"Yet another curiosity and another alicorn. This will be quite the study session..." The Capricorn noted to himself looking Jer'rahd over with mild interest.

"What do you want?" Jer'rahd stated flatly.

"Is that not my line? You came knocking right in the middle of a rather interesting conversation I was having." the Capricorn sighed.

"You've destroyed a trade line and are holding at least five of my citizens under this shield of yours. What do you want is a perfect opening line given the situation." Celestia muttered." Not exactly as polite as I suggested, but it works."

"I don't do polite in these situations." Jer'rahd snorted.

"You don't ever do polite." Celestia sighed. " If you do not wish for sudden and violent repercussions for your actions I suggest you drop your shield and allow us to retrieve those of my nation under this dome. If you comply the damage to the rail line can be considered accidental given that it is relatively new and was clearly not here the last time your island was present. This can be ended in a peaceful agreeable manner."

"Buck are you going back to this again?" Jer'rahd sighed slapping his forehead with a hoof.

"Threats now? Alicorn or not, do you two have any idea who you are addressing?" The Capricorn snarled..." I am..."

"Grogar the necromancer, ruler of the lost country of Tamberlane." Jer'rahd stated simply cutting him off.

Grogar blinked raising one eye brow as he looked at the Kirin. "That is twice today some one knew me and I am quite certain it has been nearly an eon since I was in this world..."

"He does that." Celestia sighed. " The cutting ponies off part, not the randomly knowing what he shouldn't."

"Regardless It seems you two have me at a disadvantage. Who are you?" Grogar stated.

"Do we have to do full titles?" Jer'rahd asked.

"We talked about this. Yes." Celestia responds.

"I must have tuned you out, i never agreed to that."

"Doesn't matter start naming and be sure to use the ones I gave you as well." Celestia grinned.

"Only if you use the ones I gave you." Jer'rahd smirked back.

"You can't give me titles." Celestia snorted.

"Yes I can, I'm the regent of Gallopagos. That's more than high enough rank to give you titles." Jer'rahd smirked.

"None of those titles are suitable, nor clean enough for public record, let alone to say in the company of ….. any one."

"You don't use what I call you , I sure as buck won't use what you call me." Jer'rahd complained.

"You are still one of my Guard Captains, I could order you to use them." Celestia snapped.

"And I can ignore you like I always do." Jer'rahd snapped back.

Grogar simply stood there and blinked at the argument as it devolved into random name calling and who was more the important one of the pair. This was very very strange. Granted this whole day had been strange, prisoners acting like they were in charge and making threats and now these two.

"Umm, do you and your consort need some time alone? I can come back." Grogar stated in a moment of silence between the two.

"WHAT!?" They both yell out turning to glare at the Capricorn, who takes a small step back from the looks.

"Him my consort? I would rather neuter myself." Celestia snarled.

"Seriously, that's a grievous insult. I have actual taste you know. I don't date mares with 'Wide Load ' tattooed on their flank." Jer'rahd growled.

"For the last time Kaisur I do NOT have a fat flank!" Celestia roared.

"I call it like I see it and when you're in the area, that flank is all any one can see." Jer'rahd grinned.

"Would you two get to the point?!" Grogar yells tired of this nonsense.

"Basic Titles?" Celestia sighed after a moment.

"Basic Titles" Jer'rahd nodded.

"I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. Goddess of the Sun."

"I'm Guard Captain Jer'rahd Kaisur, Regent of Gallopagos, better known as the Demon of Dullahan."

"I thought you hated that title?" Celestia asked.

"It's grown on me over the years, sounds better than that Manehatten Monster. I was called that for a while there."

"Good point. Though Monster of Manehatten rolls off the tongue better." Celestia considered.

"Yes well that is all well and good, but I understood none of that save Goddess of the Sun and Guard Captain. I do not know either Gallopagos nor Equestria. Nor Dullahan or Manhatten for that matter. Still you two are quite foolish to have come out here without an army. Particularly after you claim to be so important of ponies... and what ever you are."

"Kirin." Jer'rahd added."Sorta."

"Ahh Kirin... I'll have to make a note of that. Still you come and make threats in a mask of peaceful negotiation... A thin mask at that..."

"I never claimed to be doing that peace thing, she did." Jer'rahd stated.

"At any rate I shall not be giving up my guests and i think I shall be taking you two as well since you are here." Grogar stated. "Capture them, but keep them alive... intact is optional."

The Capricorn's horns glow brightly the same sickly yellow as the shield. Jer'rahd and Celestia blink their ears perking as the sound of sand shifting fills the air. Glancing back a score of skeletal creatures that looked to have once been donkeys or ponies burst out of the black sand and surround the pair. Old rusted armor of unknown heraldry clung to their forms with bits of dried flesh and blood splattered across it and clinging to the inside of it. Some of them had old weapons caked in rust and marked with chips and cracks, though most had nothing but their own boney flesh.

"This is an act of war you realize?" Celestia stated. "Foal napping and attempting to capture a ruler of a nation. And a regent of another."

"Call it what you will, war means my armies and power grow. Next time I see you perhaps you will be more civil. If you can still speak after this." Grogar stated turning away. A sudden blast of heat and light made him turn back just as quickly to look out the clear section of the shield again. The pair hadn't moved though the remnants of a green shield faded around the 'Kirin' and the white alicorn was brushing black ash from her back with a wing.

All around them was nothing but molten glass that was rapidly cooling, no sign of the skeletons he had summoned nor the armor they wore, most of which he knew was enchanted to deflect magic.

"What?!" Grogar stammers.

"Let me tell you what your situation is Grogar." Celestia stated. "You have made several glaring mistakes."

" First off you seek war on a world sick of it. We've had more death and destruction than any one should ever experience in several lifetimes." Jer'rahd growled. "Equss is sick of it."

"Secondly you are holding in your land my consort, who is also the co ruler of Equestria and Goddess of the Moon. And my sister, who is his wife and Queen of the Changeling race as well as Lady Regent of Gallopagos." Celestia listed.

"Your third mistake was thinking the pair of us even NEED an army to destroy you and Tamberlane utterly." Jer'rahd growled flickers of flame dancing around his muzzle as one of his eyes glows a bright red.

"You have two hours to release those you have or we will be forced to come in and rescue them ourselves. Which will not end well for you." Celestia stated her mane and tail flicking with flames.

"Two hours is just the hard limit. I suggest you let them out much much sooner." Jer'rahd snarled as Grogar quickly turned the shield opaque again.

===============================================

The Capricorn regarded the blank wall of the shield a moment. This perhaps was a bit more than he expected, though it wouldn't be the first time he was threatened by those he sought to destroy and conquer. They had to think him daft to believe they would attack when he held their loved ones at bay.

They were foolish for letting him know that he had very valuable hostages now. Still he could not help shake the feeling that it was not a slip in their intimidation,but they told him who he had for a reason. Still he could not figure out why they would, nor why they would tell him who they were fully. Were they fakes? Was it a ploy to keep the hostages alive by making them seem more important?

That had to be it.

The only other option was that they didn't care if he knew and would do exactly as they said. But that was ridiculous, nothing could break Tamberlane's shield. Not even that wizard who stopped him before had been able to get past the island's barrier Without trickery and he was aware of the fault Starswirl found and had fixed it.

This was a bluff, simple as that. Still he should question his... guests, just in case.

Trotting back to their cell he pushed open the door his eyes narrowing as he considered how to question the odd mare, that had to be that Jer'rahd's consort. She seemed the type to be attracted to a brutish warrior type...

Grogar's train of thought suddenly derailed as he stared into the now empty cell. His teeth ground together as he looked around in anger seeing no sign of any of them.

"This is a minor set back..." 


	9. Poison

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR

Poison

[ Crystal Empire, late afternoon. Great Diamond Hotel ] 

"Okay are we good?" a mare asked in the darkness.

"We moved between three hotels before staying at one we shouldn't be able to afford if I hadn't tapped into the Royal account while we were in New Canterlot. We wore disguises that were good enough to fool one of my uncle's top ponies last time we used them. We told everyone we were going to visit Spike and Bleu and told Spike and Bleu we were going to visit the north mountains to check up on Daring's expedition to search for the source of the Smooze, we then told Daring we changed our minds and were going to head back to New Canterlot. We used cash, assumed names and we know both Mom and Twilight are busy with something. We also know your parents are on tour in Japony right now with the rest of the Wonderbolts." lists a stallion.

"And the rest?"asked the mare.

"Two forms of protection, chocolate syrup, whip cream, and strawberries, plus a decent wine. Room's ready to be warded for sound, flame, and explosions with a spell scroll built to withstand a Disaster Rating of at least two. Soon as I activate it not a soul will be able to find us nor interrupt us...again."

Scootaloo sighed nodding. The pair of them had really only managed to get together every so often because for some reason their assignments were always on other sides of the country from one another. They wrote each other a lot and the pair had actually managed to develop the relationship beyond a couple of awkward dates. Still forces seemed to be conspiring against them which made the pair of stubborn ponies grow that much closer. Scootaloo blamed her dad while Pip was certain it was his mom, of course when they brought it up both Luna and Soarin fervently denied any sort of tampering at all, the whole time suggesting that they should perhaps think about dating someone else in twenty or thirty more years.

Jer'rahd and Spitfire were both useless in terms of assistance, as both of them thought their significant others actions were hilarious. Still they at least confirmed that the Changeling Queen and the second in command of the Wonderbolts were up to something.

"I can't believe we need to go this far just to have some alone time." Pip grumbles."Your dad is nuts. Every single break we have and he rigs something to block us."

"Your mom's not much better. Remember the sudden emergency that turned out to be little more than a bunny stampede? The paper work alone killed all our time off." Scootaloo sighed flicking her wing and lighting one of the candles in the room before moving to the next. The mare moved around the room wearing a large robe that had holes cut in it for her wings. Pip was sitting on the edge of the bed looking over the scroll and a few other items nearby.

"But enough about that. "Scootaloo purrs. "Nothing is gonna interrupt this time."

"Maybe unless you count that big robe of yours." Pip chuckled.

"The robes not important, it's what's underneath it."

Pip grinned."I do hope it's nothing...I rather enjoy it when you wear that."

"I usually wear that." Scootaloo chuckled "Along with nearly every other pony in Equss."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Pip smiled.

"Not really, but I do know how you keep looking at me while I'm in uniform.. so I got an old one … I'm sure you can help me take it off, or at least the parts that matter. Now activate the damn scroll before..."

"HELP!"

Pip and Scootaloo freeze at the scream, ears perking up as they slowly looked around.

"What was that?" Pip asked.

"I didn't hear anything" Scootaloo commented.

"Yeah me neither." Pip nods getting ready to cast the scroll again.

"SOME PONY HELP!"

"Buck," Pip muttered.

"Seriously it's fine some one else will help." Scootaloo stated.

"WHY WILL NO ONE HELP!?"

"It's probably something we aren't trained to deal with..." Pip suggested.

"SOME ONE PLEASE HELP! THERES FIRE EVERYWHERE!"

"Fire departments issue?" Scootaloo sighed.

"SOME ONE PLEASE HELP, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IS BUSY WITH A FIRE ACROSS TOWN!"

"How does he even know that... Any way there's fire exits he can get himself out..." Pip groaned." The scroll would keep us safe if the fire spreads..."

"THE FIRE EXITS ARE BLOCKED AND THERES FOALS AND SMALL ANIMALS IN HERE THAT I CAN'T RESCUME MYSELF DUE TO MY BROKEN LEG!"

The pair of ponies look at each other and lowered their heads in defeat.

"My uniform?" Pip asked.

"In the closet. I'll just wear this for unfun non sexy time..." Scootaloo growled tossing off the robe and pulling the Wonderbolt hood on over her head.

"Well you were right it does look good on you." Pip grinned grabbing his weapon harness and Guard Id from the closet, slipping it on as he and Scootaloo head out of the room to see ponies rushing past talking about a building across the street burning.

"I swear by Twilight's mighty wisdom hoof if dad set this up I will kill him." Scootaloo growled.

========================================================

[Baltimare, late afternoon]

This infiltration was far easier than he had expected. Getting into the city was almost a joke. He had secured a few more of the coin purses without any effort and had purchased a small room in a inn near the water front for a few days. He had sent his first missive back to his master via a seagull he had caught and killed in an ally a few hours ago, the bird was far too used to ponies and thought he had food. The information he sent Grogar wasn't likely to be very useful, but it showed a number of promising leads for those who could be targeted first to leave the nation in disarray. He had yet to find a library, but he had stopped looking after finding a seedy little establishment by the dock. Poking his nose in he found something else he was looking for.

A bar.

He got glares and scowls from the sailors and longshore ponies in the run down place as he came in, but he couldn't care any less about what they thought of him at the moment. Besides after a few free rounds for them all, most of the bar was acting like the noble looking Donkey had been their best friend all his life.

Bray smirked a little from his table, the alcohol was weaker than he recalled, though this sort of pub clearly watered it down. Still the two tavern wenches pressed up on either side of him and the group of burly looking ponies gathered around was just what he needed. He knew they only were close because they thought he had money, he did, but not the amount they thought he had.

Still in this state it was easy enough to weave a spell to turn their false friendship into real loyalty. Enough so that he was certain one or both of the mares could easily be convinced to warm his bed that night, something else he had not had the pleasure of in a long long time. Bray knew he could do better than a couple of tavern wenches, but with as little time as he had it was better to take what he could get, and it was not if they were bad looking, particularly the light green pegasus. Though she could do with less makeup.

He was considering on what he was to do with his new 'friends' when the door to the bar was flung inward with enough force to send scraps of the wooden door across the floor all the way to the far wall, along with a sizable portion of the wall that the hinges had been attached to.

In the doorway was what appeared to pony dressed in a red robe with a hood that hid the figures face in shadow. As the figure shifted it's gaze to look around, Bray could see there was a mask covering it's muzzle under the hood as well as a pair of red tinged goggles. The legs were all wrapped in some sort of red leathery looking material as well, save the front left one, that one was wrapped in back.

The bar had gone silent and Bray was of the opinion that they didn't know who it was either. The pony turned it's head slightly giving the impression of scanning the bar room, before it's eyes seemed to lock on Bray.

Of course who ever it was was after him, he couldn't be lucky enough that it was after some one else.

He didn't recall stealing this ponies wallet so it was likely something else. Bray shifted uncomfortably as the figure advanced towards him shoving a table out of the way without so much as a glance. There was an air of menace around this figure that made Bray wary and more than a little fearful. Still he had not been in town a full day yet, there was no way any one would know who he was.

"You are Bray?" the figure stated coldly, the voice husky but clearly feminine.

Well shit. Still she wasn't certain so a quick lie could fix this.

"Yeah so what if he is, what do you want?" one of the bigger and dumber of his 'friends' stated turning to glare down at the hooded mare.

Bray slapped his forehead with his hoof. Bad idea using his real name, so much for the trickery option. Still he didn't know what she wanted yet...

"I've been authorized by Princess Celestia to bring you back alive for questioning, or in a bag." The mare stated completely ignoring the pony as she focused soly on Bray. " This is the only time you get this choice."

Oh buck, Bray thought.

"Lady I don't think you know who you're messing with.." Another of the brutes stated, a griffon this time. The mare shifted her head a little looking over the crowd.

"Glassy eyes, faint odor of pickled beats fully defensive of the Donkey rather than the damage to the bar... I know exactly what I am dealing with. I'm dealing with a swarm of magically en-scrolled ponies, and one very much under arrest ass." the mare stated with a snort.

"Keep her away from me." Bray stated suddenly as a few more of his new friends moved forward surrounding the mare.

"I see. Option two then. Just so you know, all I have on me is a sandwich baggy, so I'm gonna have to be real creative to fit you in it." The mare stated flatly with no hint of humor in her voice despite the joke... at least Bray hoped it was a joke, the mares tone made it seem she was simply stating a fact.

The largest pony who was the first to speak to her was also the first to act. The large earth pony brute swung a rather large hoof at the mare with a surprising speed for one of his size. The mare ducked under the hay maker and slammed both her fore hooves into the stallion's belly, knocking the air from him and then using his own forward momentum to fling the brute overhear shoulder into the ones who had gathered behind her.

The brute hadn't even impacted the others before the mare was moving again. She pivoted on one rear hoof using the other to lash out and catch a griffon across the beak, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

The others finally started to react and a pegasus rushed her scooping up a bar stool to swing her way. The mare side stepped the swing and lashed out with a hoof, a silver cord flung out from within the black wrappings on her leg and wrapped around one of the stool's legs catching it for her to yank backwards hard. The pegasus found his impromptu weapon yanked out of his hooves and smashed into his own face as he too dropped like a rock.

By this time the brute had gotten back up and rushed her again rearing up to tower over her as he brought both his fore hooves down in a ax handle slam.

The mare didn't even lift her head , but she turned and shot one fore hoof up , stopping the blow dead. Both bray and the brute gaped in surprise as the mare whirled about swinging around the brutes forearm and slamming both her rear hooves into the side of his head sending him flying across the room into a table that shattered under his weight, this time down for the count.

Bray's eyes narrowed, the brute's foreleg was as big as all of this mare... how...? Bray closed his eyes briefly muttering a spell opening them a little scanning the mare for magic. He yelped loudly shutting his eyes tight and trying hard not to scream at the massive flare of light that hit him the moment the spell activated. This mare was a walking armory of magic.

Bray blinked back the spots from his eyes feeling a wing on his arm guiding him off, a pair of forms pressed to either side guiding him away from the table. The bar wenches it seemed opted to help him escape rather than try and fight, a wise move. He followed along his vision swimming as they led him behind the bar towards a door leading to a back room.

A sudden yelp and a crash as something shoved into his side made him look down ,his vision blurry. Evidently one of the Diamond Dogs had been flung over the bar and crashed into the unicorn mare that had been guiding him, knocking her out cold.

Bray cursed glancing to the light green pegasus still trying to guide him away from the brawl. They managed to make it to the back door and Bray paused sparing a glance back at the fight.

The mare barely seemed touched, he could see a curl of her mane had come loose from under her hood, dark blue and pink in coloration, though she didn't even seem winded, and at least eight of his followers lay scattered on the floor around her. They were all clearly alive however, so it seemed she might be some servant of the law, unwilling to kill, he could use that if he faced her again.

Her head turned suddenly staring right at him,her goggle covered eyes locked with Bray's giving the impression of sudden anger. She shifted flicking her red wrapped tail suddenly. The motion was thrown off by a unicorn trying to blast her with a energy bolt,forcing her to dodge mid attack.

Bray knew that the attack was thrown off, because one of the daggers nicked his ear and ripped his new hat from his head along with a few strands of his mane and a bit of his scalp before sticking in the wall above the bar pinning the clothing to the wood. The second blade launched from that tail hit the only other part of him that was exposed, his right leg, sticking into the bone just below his knee.

He sucked in breath wincing as he glared down at the dagger, his eyes widening in terror as he saw the orange glow of runes getting brighter on the hilt of the blade. He didn't hesitate and quickly formed a shield around part of his leg and the weapon dropping to the floor to hide from the one above his head.

He barely manged to do so as both daggers suddenly exploded in explosion of spell fire.

Bray screamed as he shoved himself through the door behind the bar, the remains of his leg trapped in the bubble shield he had put around the weapon was little more than crimson mist and chunks of gore, everything below his knee was gone as was a fair sized section of the wall over his head and his hat.

He was wrong, this mare could very much kill, and if not for that unicorn she would have done so.

Bray cursed half laying over the green mare as she helped him rush out the back door into the alleys behind the bar. Bray cursed as he hobbled down the ally with her forcing himself to become calm. He had to fix this and he didn't have time to waste, the mooks in the bar wouldn't hold her long.

"Stop here a moment." He commanded looking over to the mare as she let him down. It was a pity about this next bit, he had been hoping to bed her.

=====================================================

Sweetie Drops heard the scream as she broke a stool over the head of the last of the bar patrons. She had not been gentile,but she had refrained from being lethal. Most would recover with only minor injuries, the rest might need a hospital trip, but they would live.

The scream was not her doing however.

She darted out the way the Donkey had gone, bursting through a small kitchen and into an ally that ran around the back of the bar.

There was the target running out into the street at the far end of the ally. She took a step towards him looking to catch up when a whimper drew her attention. Laying in a pile of refuse was the green pegasus mare that had helped Bray escape. She was alive and swearing after the Donkey between whimpers, but she was covered in blood. Sweetie Drops winced noting that one of her legs had been completely severed just below the knee and was gushing blood all over the ally. She glanced up as Bray rounded the corner running at top speed.

She switched her gaze between the two and bit her tongue lightly.

"Dammit"

She dropped down next to the mare tapping her com as she did so, she tore a section of her cloak free for a tourniquet. She flinched noting the color fading from the mare as she went into shock.

"Control this is Agent Drops. Code alpha four two, mission code ,'Wide Load' copy? "

"Control here Drops, Code identified and acknowledged, counter code 'shut the hell up Kaisur' This is Green Two, I'll be your handler this mission, what do you need?"

"Have you been filled in on my mission parameters?"

"Yes sir."

"Good Bray has been confirmed in Baltimare, I had eyes on, but lost him. New data on subject he is a spell caster and at the very least knows a level three mind control spell. There are twenty one injured in the Bannered Mare at dock side at the south end. I'll need a level two team to fix their memories from the charm and a EMT for injuries and for a pegasus mare behind the bar, she was under control as well, though Bray removed her limb for some reason. She is currently going into shock I am bringing her back into the bar's kitchen after I make sure she isn't trapped."

"Confirmed agent, EMT and Guard detail will be there in five. Recommend you get what info you can from the bar and vacate before they arrive unless you want to answer questions."

"Acknowledged, Drops out."

The mare looked over the injured pony a moment more before picking her up and carrying her back into the kitchen, She set her down and sighed. Same coloration almost... cutie mark looked more like an anchor than a harp but at a glance she couldn't help make the connection between the pegasus mare and Lyra. That was sloppy. She let her emotions get in the way of stopping Bray. That wouldn't happen again. Saving this one mare's life might cost others theirs later on. Still despite her flash of anger she was supposed to take him alive, despite Guard Captain Kaisur's orders the Donkey might have information on how to get Lyra back... and the Princess and the others...

She sets the mare on the counter in the kitchen , shoving everything aside to lay her down. She pulled a small crystal from her cloak , breaking it over the mares stump. The minor healing spell wouldn't stop the bleeding fully, but it would slow it more. The mare would be crippled, but she would live.

Sweetie Drops moved back through the door way into the bar. Her eyes drifted down to the bloody mess that had fallen on the floor ,the remains of Bray's right leg. The blood and goop had turned black and solidified into a jello like substance that reeked of death. The mare consided it scooping some up in a small baggy and tucking it away before heading back out of the kitchen hearing the sirens in the distance getting closer.

Sweetie Drops took note of the missing right fore limb of the pegasus and frowned recalling Bray running, not limping.

She toggled the com again as she darted out the door, slinging a line to the top of a nearby building and pulling herself to the top of it.

"Control, another add on to Bray's file. He is a confirmed necromancer."

===================================================

Bray swore loudly as he ran, keeping his head down and shucking off his cloak and the fancy clothes the mare had seen him in. He needed to get far away from that place and that mare. She had stopped to help the pegasus, something he had bet on when he left her alive after he got what he wanted. Still he needed to make it to the water before she caught up with him. He knew there were River Ponies patrolling the water way, but he only needed to move further along the city and perhaps find a place to hide out until he could rest and get used to his new leg.

The donkey ran on, hobbling on a new green right leg, one slightly too tall for his body. It wouldn't be the first time that he needed to replace a body part. Bray had been around much longer than Grogar and had taught the Capricorn a number of things before his student surpassed him by leaps and bounds. Still when he was king he had raised the abandoned Capricorn foal like his own son, and there was still some of that feeling tying Grogar to Bray. So long as the donkey did what he was told, Grogar and the island were content to let him live.

Of course this current situation was new. He was being hunted, by some one excessively powerful with access to items and strengths he had never even seen before, at a power level unheard of in his time. The spell latices around her alone from the bit he was able to decipher were the work of a master with skill far beyond anything he had seen. The mare clearly had no qualms about killing him, and he doubted he would be able to use the same trick twice.

Bray made it to the water dropping down into it river and swimming down under the docks. The gills he had grafted in from a seapony years or eons ago still functioned, but the waters pollution burned them. Maybe those of this day were used to it, but he certainly wasn't. Still he quickly found what he was looking for under one of the docks. An old drain pipe that lead up into one of the abandoned factories on the waters edge.

He followed the pipe cutting though or moving the few rusty grates there were before emerging from the pipe into a dry vat of some kind, there didn't seem to be any way in or out of the vat save some small pipes at the top and the way he came in.

While resting in a waste disposal tank was not his idea a good time, it was better than nothing, and he had slept in worse places. Besides it was safe.

Still he needed to find a way to keep the mare and who ever she worked for off his back while he learned more about the new world.

And he had a good idea of how to do that.

==================================================== 

[Crystal Empire]

Scootaloo lands, dropping off another load of small kittens that were in the apartment above the bakery.

The room's owner and the foals he had there, were the first ones out of the building. She had also rescued an iguana, three rabbits, the six kittens, and a giant dog named Princess Little Piddles. She stopped short of saving anything that wasn't alive, mostly cause the floor was about to give out and parts had fallen into the apartment below already. Luckily there didn't seem to be any one else home this time of day and those in the bakery had all seemed to have gotten out already.

"Oh thank you Ma'am... I didn't know what I'd do if any of the fluffies were harmed..." stated a neon blue and pink crystal pony. The stallion looked surprisingly like Aloe from the Ponyville spa right down to the flowery cutie mark which turned out to be a 'blooming onion' and not a flower according to him. "I am sorry about your partner though."

"Hmm? What about Pip?" Scootaloo demanded.

"He ran into that fire ten minutes ago and he hasn't come out yet. He can't have survived that... poor brave thing."

Scootaloo snorted in annoyance.

"Oh is that all. Yeah he's fine." Scootaloo stated." It's only a fire, the structures not collapsed fully and doesn't seem in danger to do so also most of the smoke is being filtered out. Though all the open windows."

"But..." the stallion began, blinking as a figure walked out of the flames with a large bundled form on his back. 

"Lieutenant are the Crystal Guard here?" Pip demanded.

"Not yet. But every pony's out of the building." Scootaloo stated walking over to the earth pony who shook the soot out of his mane. "What's this then?"

"The cause of the fire I'd assume. Look's like one of the bakers left the stove on, and then passed out. I found him there on the floor still asleep. He needs medical attention from smoke inhalation and some mild burns, he's lucky the fire went up the wall instead of down over the floor. If the Guards not here soon I'll need you to fly him over there while I handle things here." Pip grumbled.

"I take by the fact you are addressing me by rank we are not getting back to our room anytime soon..." Scootaloo muttered as Pip nodded with a sigh.

Scootaloo groaned, the pair were the same rank, though Pip generally had the better logistics, while Scootaloo had the better instincts and on the fly planning. In action he followed her lead and the reverse was true with pre mission or post mission situations. Still they two of them worked very well together and rarely stepped on each others hooves

"Alright lieutenant... " Scootaloo sighed lifting her head to shout to the crowd. "Hey where's the bakery's owner?!"

"That would be me!" A fairly thin mare with a white mane and tail runs up to the pair of them wincing at the sight of the figure bundled in the curtains on Pip's back. "I'm Red Velvet... Is that... is that Maple Walnut? He's the only one of my bakers missing."

"Not sure, brown mane and tail, unicorn, tree and a nut as a cutie mark." Pip lists as the mare nods.  
"He's alive, but barely breathing. He's suffering from some burns and smoke inhalation. Lieutenant there's the Guard, good they have a flying chariot, take him over there while I ask a few questions."

"Right.. Scootaloo sighed gently lifting the pony off Pip's back and gliding the bundled figure over the crowd towards the ambulance chariot.

"Fire proof curtains? Pip commented looking at the mare.

"Worth every bit if they helped save him." Velvet responded.

"They helped. I don't suppose you know if anything was wrong with him?"

"I don't think so... I mean he said he wasn't sleeping much, something about horrid nightmares, but a few of us have had that lately, stress from several large orders I assumed. No pony has been getting much sleep for about a week now. Other than that no I don't think so."

"He looked like he had passed out and left the stove on, what ever he was cooking likely caught fire and broke the fire crystal in the stove. There will be a full investigation, but that's just what I assumed from a glance. Don't quote me on it, my jobs not investigation."

" I won't .. but … how are you not burned you were in there quite a while...?" Red Velvet asked as Pip reached up, absent mindly rubbing one of the metal studs in his ear.

"Nothing to worry about miss. Let's just say I deal with fire quite often and have protection from it." Pip commented his gaze shifting around the crowd gathered. His eyes narrowing as he noticed a number of ponies yawning, and nearly all of them looked tired, some with rather dark circles under their eyes including the Guards and rescue workers.

What was going on around here?

=======================================================

[ Tamberlane, outside the shield]

"Two hours? For bucks sake we should have given the fool twenty seconds." Jer'rahd snarled pacing across the sand as Celestia sorted through the fallen train cars.

"Keep in mind Kaisur there is the small matter of the bell. While I doubt that was it around his neck we need to make sure that that bell does not get rung or we will lose those he has trapped. We might vanish as well along with the island.

"He can't ring it if I take off his head before he moves a hoof." Jer'rahd snorted.

Celestia ignored him pulling out a few pieces of luggage with a small sigh. " Looks like they went through the cars out here as well. There's a few letters and some ponies clothes. "Celestia stated pulling out a purple cape covered in stars and moons.

"Why are you going through the wreckage any way?" Jer'rahd demanded.

"To see if there might be any bodies on this side. We know five ponies were on that train and I want to know if he has them all or if some didn't make it."

Jer'rahd nodded lightly leaving her to it as he moved to study the shield again. Something about this thing seemed odd. A shield of this size should have been using quite a bit of energy. Grogar showed no signs of strain or even that he was casting it, his magic also seemed two tone which was very odd, granted so was the Capricorn casting spells at all. He knew Ram's could cast some basic spells, but their skill was mostly shamanistic.

He paused his ears perking as he turned his head looking back at his side to the sheathed Waning Moon. The weapon seeming to tremble against his side with a rage of it's own. Jer'rahd frowned, there was only one time his weapon did that sort of thing, and he didn't like what it might mean. He turned away from the shield moving closer to one of the train cars half in and half out of the shield. Feeling the shake of his sword grow stronger Jer'rahd poked around in the sand and debris finding a box half buried in the sand. He cursed lightly yanking the box free, black sand pouring off it with a hiss.

"Shit." Jer'rahd stated recognizing the box.

"What is it?" Celestia demanded moving over next to him and spotting the case, cursing under her breath as well.

"Twilight's not as well off in there as I hoped." Jer'rahd growled as he opened the case.

Celestia's eyes narrowed as the open case revealed a silvery sword, the weapon was doubled bladed like the Waning Moon, but the twin blades were straight and double sided on either side of the white grip. The weapon glowed softly as a soft gold flame danced around the blade.

"The Brilliant Dawn." Celestia stated flatly. She closed her eyes a moment exhaling. " She wouldn't willingly leave this. " She looked up at the shield, her jaw setting as her magic gripped the blade and pulled it free of the case, the golden flame around the weapon becoming a raging inferno of light as Celestia lifted the sword. The weapon recognizing it's co creator, much as the waning Moon did with Luna.

"I think perhaps that this may work out to our advantage any way." Celestia commented looking over the blade.

"Provided you remember your training and don't manage to stab yourself with it." Jer'rahd grumbled.


	10. Dream

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Dream 

Fire. The air was filled with fire, one couldn't breath without scorching their lungs. The sky itself seemed ablaze, choked with thick black smoke and flames. The roar of the fires filled her ears, a symphony of devastation with a chorus of dying screams adding an accompaniment. The deep base like booms and crashes as wall and buildings collapsed and tumbled creating a terrible melody that seemed the end of all things.

Despite the state of it she recognized this place. How could she not? It was her home.

She turned as the monument arch over the great stairway fell, the stone shattering on the stairs and tumbling down them rolling over the chard and eviscerated bodies lining the stairs. There were one or two shrieks of those not quite dead as the massive stones rolled over them, though mostly the sound was just of rock striking rock with the occasional squelch as a rock pulped a body in passing as they tumbled down the steps towards the remains of the Ponyville district. Behind her a thunderous boom sounded as the Castle itself fell. The newly rebuilt structure was reenforced and rebuilt far stronger than ever before and now it was little more than a still burning pile of rubble, it was gone. The place she grew up was nothing now.

New Canterlot was no more.

Rynthia shivered, her eyes scanning over everything as she shook standing in the one spot that seemed to not be burning, but it was soaked in blood, blood that seemed to ooze off her hooves and her limbs. Her fur was sticky with it...

She had done this she had killed every...

"Wow Stripy, this is pretty dark... have you been reading mommies horror novels again?" a chipper voice all but shouts from behind her.

Rynthia yelped leaping into the air, whirling in place to see a burning figure standing before her now. It appeared to be a black alicorn with an amber mane and tail, though the chard flesh and melting skin made her question that even.

Unlike the other burning figures this one didn't seem to notice it was on fire. Or even acknowledge it was in any pain. In fact it sounded like...

"Dawn?" Rynthia questioned.

"Who else would it be Stripy? Well maybe Fluffy Butt or Brainy... both of them are pretty smart." Dawn rambled. " But I haven't seen them yet, soooooooo maaaay be the spell worked?"

"What!? Well this is new... what, what has happened to you?" Rynthia stammered looking at the gory mess of her sister.

"Well despite what I wanted I took a nap cause you guys wanted me too. I went through a stupid dream about daddy getting killed by some stupid monster and I couldn't help but laugh at it cause no way ever daddy'd get killed by something that looked like a bowl of lime jello that had gotten loose. Then everything went all swirly and stary for a moment then I caught your scent and flew through a window and I wound up here." Dawn answered. " Though honestly I think I'd rather deal with the jello monster, this place is just icky..."

Rynthia blinked at that. A dream? Of course it was a dream, she would never do anything to New Canterlot, nor any one in it. The Zebra filly closed her eyes tight, the screams and crackle of the flames fading as she fought to control her fear of this happening, not something that was fully possibly, but when she opened her eyes she was greeted by her undamaged Kirin shaped sister floating in front of her, stretched out on her back on her back giggling as she spun around in mid air her wings fanning madly to keep her spinning.

Rynthia lifted her head looking around seeing nothing but darkness filled with countless stars. The Zebra filly drew in a sharp breath in awe as she floated in the stary void.

"Pretty ain't it?" Dawn grinned spinning in the air and chasing her own tail. " Gets boring after a while, but it kinda changes every so often."

"I did not expect that I would soar... wait, you have been here before?" Rynthia asked.

"Yeah, when I was like real little I remember coming here with mommy all the time. I don't remember much but I know I'm kinda comfortable here. And I think all these little dots every where are other ponies." Dawn sweeps her arms wide gesturing to the massive collection of stars in the void.

"This place still seems amiss, I do not think the spell was supposed to do this." Rynthia commented.

"This is the place where mommy used to walk between dreams back before auntie Twilight took over." Dawn stated getting a confused glance from Rynthia that her sister was teaching her something.

"The book said it would lead here but I never thought..."

"It would be this pretty?" Dawn grinned cutting off the rhyme though Rynthia didn't seem to notice.

"Where are the others, are they near? Every one was supposed to be here."

"Probably same as you were, stuck in a dream... I found you and I can smell Buggy and 3p. Auntie Cadence makes them use that icky soap for washing up and I can't not smell it." Dawn gags.

"Then we have no time to wait, let us find them before it's too late."

=================================================

[Six years after the defeat of Tirek, late winter.]

Elusive yawned softly looking out the window of his room in Darwhinny keep. He and Talon were both here, having been brought along by uncle Jer'rahd on one of his rare trips to the island. He wasn't sure why, but neither his mother [Twilight] nor mom[ Celestia] really cared for the island. Auntie Luna and Uncle Jer'rahd were the same way, but at least he understood Uncle Jer'rahd's dislike, his mom said he was allergic to paperwork and he had to do a lot of it when he came here. 

Neither of his parents would really say why, though Elusive was smart enough to know it likely had to deal with his real mom and dad. That was a subject his mother never wanted to bring up, and when he asked it often made his mother cry so he stopped asking.

He wasn't sure why Talon was brought along though, likely to keep him company, though his Hippogryph friend spent all his time in one of the islands libraries. During the war with Tirek a sizable number of Kirin had stayed behind during the evacuation trying to save all the history of their race that they could. Most were killed by Tirek during the few days where he sought to obliterate the island. Though threw the sacrifices of those scholars, Gallopagos still had nearly all of it's thousand years of history saved, thus after the war it was the largest collection of historical knowledge outside the Crystal Empire, and the Kirin even had books that the Crystal Empire did not.

This made it especially weird that his mother didn't like this place.

Elusive rather liked it though. The old palace was gone, turned to dust along with most of the original city, but it wasn't the building, it was the land itself. It just felt... like he was supposed to be here. He didn't know how to explain it.

Any further thought in the matter was cut off by a knock at the door to his room. He blinked at that, Talon wouldn't knock and he was the only one who Elusive expected to show up.

"Elusive, you awake?" a voice questioned making the white Kirin's ears perk as a gray furred and amber maned figure poked his head in.

"Uncle Jer'rahd sir!" Elusive stammered not expecting Jer'rahd to come visit him, particularly not while he was supposed to be holding court. "What did you need sir? I thought you were in court?"

"I still am, we broke for a recess. There's a case coming up I want you to sit in on. You don't need to do anything but listen. But I will want your opinion on it in the end."

The seven year old Kirin blinked at that before nodding and following along after the larger Kirin.  
Mother and mom said uncle Jer'rahd wasn't really a Kirin, and he certainly didn't look like Elusive, but he was close enough to be counted as one now, and Elusive didn't care about the specifics any way.

Jer'rahd and Elusive were immediately flanked by two Guards that Elusive knew immediately, Elecktra and Talia. The pair of them had come back to Gallopagos with their families rather than stay to guard him in Canterlot, though the pair of them immediately took to their old duties the moment Elusive set hoof on the island.

The pair of them split off form Jer'rahd, guiding him to one of the balconies lining the great hall and to a seat that gave him a good view of the floor below, but where few if any others aside from those by the thrones could see him.

Jer'rahd sat down at a small desk in front of the thrones, choosing not to sit in either of them despite the fact he was the regent. The two thrones were reconstructions of the thrones used by his parents. One was a black onyx draped with greens and blues, though relatively unadorned with anything fancy. The other was a white pearl throne with three blue diamonds set in a pattern above the head of who ever sat in the soft royal purple velvet cushions. Unlike the black throne, this one was carved in insane details and designs.

The thrones of his parents. Well recreations any way.

"Look to those in the stands Lord Elusive. " Talia commented.

Elusive swallowed as he looked down over the edge of the balcony at those gathered in the court directly below him.

On one side of the room in the rows of seats set up for the court were a mixed group of ponies and Kirin, most of them seemed to be of noble stature. At the very least their clothing seemed rich.

On the other side of the room in a near identical selection of seats were another group of ponies and Kirin, though there were a number of changelings on this side as well. A trio of ponies were sitting at the front of seats and given a bit of space by the others stood out to him for some reason.

Two males and a female. The older male looked horrified and distraught over something. The younger male and female about the same age as the older male seemed about ready to leap from their seats and murder some one.

The doors below him burst open and the crowd started to mummer among themselves. Two massive Kirin Guards brought forth a chocolate furred and golden maned unicorn pony bound in chains, marching him through the middle of the court to stand before the desk.

Two other official looking ponies moved forward to to stand on either side of the desk that Jer'rahd sat behind. One was a black furred male Kirin with a slick suit and slicked back hair, the other was a blond colored Kirin mare with a yellow colored mane and tail who seemed perpetually annoyed.

The prisoner seemed undeterred as he marched on with the air of triumph despite his chains.

"Last case of the day sir." the male well dressed Kirin by Jer'rahd spoke.

"I know this one Fielding. Bailiff read the charges." Jer'rahd stated briefly looking up at the pony in chains before lowering his head to go over a stack of paper work before him.

A massive minotaur that Elusive had some how missed coughed lightly and ran a hand between his horns and over his bald head. He wore a uniform like the Guard though Elusive could see a name tag on his massive chest that read 'Tannon'.

"Yes sir. The accused is Golden Savior, birth name of Bark Beetle, owner of Golden Holistics and Alchemy supply at three six one, 22nd street. Accused is charged with first degree premeditated murder, resisting arrest, attempting to start a riot, treasonous slander against the crown, and willful endangerment." The minotaur stated.

"How do you plead?" Jer'rahd demanded not really seeming paying attention.

"Not guilty of course. Save to the slander bit. I think you are doing a shit job as regent." Golden stated with a smirk.

"Noted, charge dropped as being irrelevant, I don't care what any one says about me and every one is welcome to their opinions. " Jer'rahd stated waving a hoof in the air and signing something else as the Kirin mare made a note of what was said. " What of the rest of it? Same plea?"

"Of course. I didn't kill any one, I swatted a bothersome insect." The chained pony stated.

The entire court suddenly went silent at that. A few of the Guards spared a glance at Jer'rahd who had finally lifted his head from his paperwork to stare at the pony before him.

"Excuse me?" Jer'rahd demanded.

"Did I stutter? All I did was squash a bug. To be honest you should all be giving me a freaking parade, that's one less insect that we need to destroy. They should all be wiped out."

"The Changelings you mean? All of them, infants as well?"

"Of course all of them especially the larva, they'll only grow up to threaten us, kill them before they get a chance."

"Genocide. You're talking about the extinction of a race." Jer'rahd stated flatly. The bailiff and the two Kirin on the other side of the table looked quickly between the gray and orange Kirin seated on one side of the table and the black and gold maned unicorn stallion on the other. The three of them and a number of Guards seemed rather nervous for some reason.

"Crap... it's going off the rails. Talia we need to get the young lord out of here before he loses it..." Elecktra began though Talia shook her head looking down to meet Jer'rahd's gaze as he glanced up to them.

"Lord Elusive. I believe this is something you may need to pay close attention too." Talia stated.

Jer'rahd sighed reaching a hoof up to scratch a bit of fur growth under his chin. It wouldn't be the first time he tried to grow a beard, though he would likely shave the moment it was long enough for Luna to poke fun of his attempt.

"I take you have some sort of issue with the Changelings then?" Jer'rahd stated calmly. His comment confusing the Guards around as several kept glancing towards his eyes as if expecting something.

Elusive was rather confused by their antics, but he didn't want to ask as he might miss what some one said.

"They attacked us, killed thousands, how many others have they foal napped, or drained to husks over the years, they should have all been wiped out when we had the chance..." Golden Savior ranted getting a few boos and curses from the crowd, though a rather sizable number of cheers or at least sounds of encouragement. Most of the praise came from the well to do side of the court, but not all.

"I take you did not read any of the books that have been published, seen any of the pamphlets passed out about Changelings, since their acceptance into Equestrian society?" Jer'rahd questioned.

"Slanderous Rubbish, that propaganda isn't fit to read..."

"Willful ignorance." Fielding muttered.

"It is not willful ignorance to protect yourself from lies..." Golden shouted.

"Tell me Bark did you lose any one in Canterlot to either of the Changeling attacks on the city?" Jer'rahd demanded.

"It's Golden!"

"Bark, answer the question." Jer'rahd said flatly not seeming to care about the name change. " Any family, friends, pets, anyone?"

Bark was silent a moment as he stared at the Kirin behind the desk.

"No. I was a resident of Manehatten at the time. Most of my family lives in Seaddle." Golden admited.

"Places that the Changelings never came any where near. In fact places that we are well aware had few if any infiltrators in at all." Jer'rahd commented.

" Does it matter where I lived, it's easy to see the evil in these things. You only defend them because you're married to one. Your views are prejudice any way, you're likely controlled and shouldn't be allowed to lead any way. This court is a farce!" Golden roared, the crowd behind him roaring along with him with angry shouts. Some yelling that he was correct others screaming about how he was a fool.

Jer'rahd sat still, his eyes closed as he listened to every one around him rant, his ears slowly flattening to his head as the screaming match continued. The Guards and the court ponies seemed unsure of what to do for a moment, though the Guards at least had moved forward trying to calm the crowd.

Elusive was rather confused at why his Uncle was letting this go on. He could have stopped everything didn't this pony kill some one?

Jer'rahd opened his eyes looking up at the balcony as the ranting continued. His red and green gaze meeting Elusive's aqua colored eyes before he lowered his head again focusing on the unicorn in chains before him. His horn lit green briefly, a color matched by a small gem on the desk before him.

"Silence."

The order though spoken softly boomed though the hall, the reverberation of the sound crystal shaking the core of the building and causing a few of those gathered to fall out of their chairs in surprise. The Guard's tensed as they looked back at him though Jer'rahd looked a little sheepish at the sudden explosion of sound himself.

Jer'rahd's magic faded from the stone as he put a hoof over it and slid it over to the Kirin mare.

"Miss Sullivan please have the mages turn this down a few notches, that was a bit too much."

"Yes sir. Though you must admit it was effective." The mare stated taking the stone and putting it in one of her saddle bags.

"Now do I have every ones attention ? Good. Let us start with the beginning here. First off I did not marry a Changeling. I married the Goddess of the Night, one of the rulers of Equestria. Granted she did not marry a Kirin, she married a pony, but I digress. Princess Luna, became a Changeling voluntarily in order to save Equss itself from Tirek..."

"More propaganda..." Golden started jerking back when Jer'rahd lept up from his chair slamming both hooves down onto the top of the desk with enough force to shatter one of the legs and put a large crack in the surface of it.

"BARK, SHUT UP WHEN I AM TALKING OR SO HELP ME I WILL PERSONALY TEAR OUT YOUR TONGUE AND FLOG YOU TO DEATH WITH IT JUST TO SEE IF I CAN!" Jer'rahd roared his eye flaring a brilliant crimson.

A faint cough from above drew the pissed off Regents attention to the upper balcony where Talia and Elecktra glared down at him. Elusive had his head sandwiched between both of his Guard's hooves over his ears to block out the sound in case Jer'rahd started swearing.

Jer'rahd rolled his eyes and sunk back down into the chair, taking note of how much the desk swayed now, though a pair of Guards had already brought in another desk to replace it. This was clearly not a new thing.

"Sorry about that, let me continue this, where was I? Oh right, right now ninety percent of all Changelings, used to be something else. There are very very few natural blooded Changelings, and most of the ones that are natural born, at least seventy to eighty percent of them, were born in the last six years so they are still very young." Jer'rahd continued. " The mare in question, twenty two year old Hazel Lollipop was one such transformed Changeling. She was abducted during the invasion of Canterlot sixteen years ago when she was six. She was changed and forced to serve the hive under Chrysalis as a mindless drone and even after the death of Chrysalis she was a catatonic until five years ago when Luna started repairing the damage Chrysalis had done. When she was freed she underwent years of therapy due to shock at the fact she had just lost eleven years of her life that she would never recall or get back. Those PONIES seated behind you are her parents and her brother!"

Jer'rahd points a hoof to the trio of ponies who sat in the front of the court. He rises from his chair trotting around the broken desk, moving to look Golden in the face, his fangs bared.

"They just got her back after thinking she was dead for ten years, their youngest child, who they thought was lost to them was returned. They bent over backwards to make her feel welcomed again, despite the fact she wasn't even a pony any more, they still treated her as their daughter, as family, because she was!" Jer'rahd growled his eye glowing brighter the more he spoke, the red light reflecting off the scales of his muzzle giving the impression that he was smeared with bright blood as the orange scales shimmered. "What you did Bark... was stalk, foal nap, torture, and kill a young mare who had JUST started to live a normal life again. One of the few success stories we have regarding reuniting converted Changelings and their families. And because of your willful stupidity, because of your mindless and pointless thoughts of revenge that's all gone now."

He pulled away from the stallion in disgust his tail whipping.

"I don't even need to look over the other charges against you. This cowardly act of murder out does any thing any of the other charges might have brought against you. The Guard found her body at your residence, your neighbors have already given their documentation when they reported the screams to the Guard. The evidence is overwhelmingly damning and I find you guilty as charged."

"You can't do that, I demand a jury of peers!" Golden screamed.

"This isn't Equestria Bark Beetle. This is Gallopagos. The rules here were set six years ago. There is no jury of peers for this sort of crime because we do not often allow any murders to remain alive long enough to sit on a jury, those would be your only peers. Here you are judged by the Regent or one of the magistrates and that has been done. You have lived here for three years you cannot claim ignorance of the law. Even if you did ignorance of the law is not a defense for breaking it."

The rumble of discussion in the room lifted to a small roar until Jer'rahd slapped a hoof against the remains of his desk silencing them.

"Normally an execution would be arraigned, but being as this is a hate crime that I want never to repeat any where ever again, I am going to set a precedence here. Perhaps this will make others think twice before attempting what you did."

"Fielding, Sullivan take note." Jer'rahd stated glancing to the court Kirin before sitting down on his chair again.

"Golden Savior, birth name of Bark Beetle, under Equestrian court you would be sentenced time by being turned to stone and left to rot for your crimes. I find that too lenient. Instead you are to be sentenced too Alpalcatraz prison in the Marena trench. Your horn will be removed, you will be hobbled and gelded before spending the rest of your life in the mines of the prison. Your name shall stricken from all records as having ever existed, your property shall be liquidated to pay for your victims funeral expenses and and family grief counciling as needed. What ever remains shall be used to promote better understanding between Changeling and Pony, attempting to combat ignorance like yours. Sentence is to be carried out immediately, take him out of here." Jer'rahd ordered as the Guard moved forward collecting the pony in chains who was now screaming and begging fearfully as he was drug out. The rest of the room was silent , all of them staring at the regent with mixed looks of horror or acknowledgment of justice being served.

Jer'rahd looked over to the family of the victim and nodded to them slightly. "I know this will not bring your daughter back, but hopefully no one else will suffer as you did after this ruling. I thank you for coming out today despite how hard it must have been for you."

Jer'rahd rose from the desk letting the Guards pull it away to replace it with the new one. " Bailiff I believe I shall end court for today. Prosecutor Fielding, Defense Sullivan , please push anything else today until tomorrow I expect I will need to extend my stay to deal with the issues arising from this. But for today I'm done. Court adjourned."

-

A little over an hour later Jer'rahd was walking down on of the new sandstone streets of the city alongside Elusive with his two Guards in tow.

"So what did you think Elusive? Do you have any questions about what you saw? About what I did?" Jer'rahd asked. " Do not be afraid to ask them."

Elusive moved along with him considering this as the small group made it's way down the street getting a few nods from some passerby's though most gave them a with berth.

"If you knew that he was guilty, why let him speak at all? Why not just sentence him?" Elusive finally asked. " It would be quicker."

Jer'rahd nodded. "A good question, but there was a reason for allowing him to rant as he did. Did you see how some of the others in court reacted. Some agreed with him. Changelings are still a rather sore subject for many despite there not being a reason for them to be anymore. If anything the Changeling race is more inclined towards peace and prosperity than any other race simply due to a peaceful, harmonious society will generate more love than a warring or violent one. Without a Queen seeking revenge, forcing them to follow her thoughts, it's unlikely natural born Changelings will even have any leanings towards violence. Ponies generally do not either, however ponies and many others will do things if they are scared that normally they would never do. In this instance many saw nothing wrong with how Bark acted. If I had simply sentenced him, word of what he had truly done would have been lost in the media screaming about how unfair the sentencing was. It was regrettably turned into a show for everyone, but with the full reveal of his actions and how he reacted to such displayed for everyone at once swayed more against him than in favor of. With the harsh sentencing I gave, word of this will be on every ones lips for some time and any one else who thought doing something stupid like that was a good idea will hopefully reconsider now that they know the penalty."

"Wasn't that punishment too harsh? Every one seemed shocked by it, though I don't know what most of the words meant. Or what Alpacatraz is. But every one seemed horrified." Elusive asked.

"Alpalcatraz is part of an agreement we made with the Seaponies through the River pony intermediaries. Several nations are in the same deal where the Seaponies take our worst prisoners to work their under sea mines, they in turn trade the ore back to use for what ever they may need. It lessens the risk to their own workers to have criminals working instead. If they do not work they do not eat, if they cause trouble they are executed. Even with those who have nothing to live for any more the survival instinct is strong enough to keep them going. The hobbling and Gelding are both done magicaly so there is no pain, it is to prevent them from .. ummm.. making any foals with any other prisoners while down there and the hobbling is primarily on their back legs to make it harder to rise up or attempt to fight. Horn removal however cannot be done magically and … it is obviously, not pleasant."

"That seems rather harsh..." Elusive mentions as the small group nears the docks.

"It is. But as I said I needed to send a message. What I hope you learn from this is you can't simply focus on what is in front of you as a leader, everything needs to be accounted for. Every choice you make will affect far more than just the immediate issue."

"So this was a lesson." Elusive snorted.

" It was. So what would you have done?" Jer'rahd asked.

"I... I don't know..."Elusive admited as Jer'rahd chuckled.

"It's fine, you have plenty of time. Twilight and Celestia will likely show you things such as this as well. While I think they are too soft, they think I am too hard. How we govern still works, but we have opposing view points and ways of looking at things. I'm sure you will discover your own balance in time. Any way we are here." Jer'rahd stated stopping at a large open area in the middle of the street.

To the right Elusive could see a number of shops lining the road including one at the end that looked sorta like a big top tent, set at the very end of the street and taking up a whole block by itself. A number of windows with various forms of clothing ran along the facing side. In large letters across the top was a sign spelling out the name' Carousel Boutique.

To the left, the road ran down to a docks, numerous statues and monuments lined the street as it ran down and into the water The street seemed to just stop, a massive half circle bite taken out of the land. In the middle of the half circle what would be the center of a full circle was a towering white spire that rose up out of the water and glimmered brightly as the sun fell on it.

Before them in the middle of the road was a small fenced in area. A section of melted street that had not been repaved was the only thing inside the fence. The blackened circle little more than smoothed volcano glass with a fence around it. In the middle of the glass however, a black spear rested, embedded in the ground, the haft of the weapon was covered in various runes and a white strip of cloth fluttered lightly around the base of it, the material wrapped tight around the shaft.

"This is..." Elusive stammered.

"This is where your parents gave their lives to save others. The actions of your father saved the lives of numerous Kirin trying to board the ships that would let them flee Tirek and certain death. " Jer'rahd pointed to the Spear then to the white monument in the water. " The actions of your mother saved the fleeing ships and countless more lives including that of Twilight Sparkle and you."

Elusive blinked noting a number of Kirin had slowed as they moved down the street, pausing to watch him and Jer'rahd.

"Every action has consequence. The ones your parents saved could go on to do great things, cure diseases, right wrongs. But ponies like Bark were also saved, had he died here the Changeling he killed would still be alive and the family he broke would still be whole."

Elusive said nothing for a time.

"How... how can you tell ? Who's a good one and not?" The Kirin colt finally asked.

"You can't. You simply need to hope that what you do will have more benefit to every pony than any negatives. You can hedge your bets, study every angle and play the odds and you might be able to keep the good out weighing the bad. But sometimes you simply need to go with what your gut tells you and hope it's the right choice."

"Do you think they made the right choice?"

"They saved countless lives with their sacrifice. It would have been best if they had been around to raise you, but life does not always work out the way we want. You either have to roll with what you are given or fight back tooth and hoof for every step. "Jer'rahd stated. "Some times neither is enough. Come on."

Jer'rahd walked forward to the fence as Talia moved ahead unlocking a small gate that lead onto the blackened area.

Even more Kirin had gathered at this point watching and muttering among themselves as Elusive approached the spear.

Jer'rahd moved forward towards the spear gesturing towards it for Elusive.

"This spear is called Thurkear Ner. It is one of very few remaining artifacts that were created during the Equestrian Civil war or the War of Night as some call it. I helped make this weapon and a number of others like it for my best soldiers. I gave this spear to your grandfather personally. It was passed down to your father. It is currently yours."

"It's stuck in the ground." Elusive stated looking at the haft of the weapon, the runes covering it glowing brighter as he moved forward.

"If you are worthy of it, you can easily pull it free." Jer'rahd stated flatly as a hush fell over the gathered Kirin.

Elusive blinked at that, moving over to the spear, one hoof reaching up to touch it, the weapon seeming to chime at his light touch. The little white Kirin swallowed, trying to wrap his hooves around the haft, pulling a little with no effect. He bit down on it and tugged harder, the weapon didn't move. Finally he wrapped the whole thing in his magic yanking hard on it and straining, his little tail whipping wildly before he fell back wards tumbling away from the weapon only to be caught by Jer'rahd before he rolled into the fence.

There were a few chuckles and a number of disappointed groans from those gathered. Though there was also a small amount of applause and calls of encouragement before the gathered Kirin moved on.

"I guess it doesn't think I'm worthy." Elusive pouts.

Jer'rahd chuckled leading him out of the fence as Talia locked it behind them.

"It's not the spear that doesn't think you are worthy, it's just some metal trapped in stone easily freed with some effort. The weapon wasn't keeping you from taking it, it's you who does not think yourself worthy to pull it. After what I've shown you today you are likely highly conflicted that you have it in you to lead any one. Don't worry, as much as I would like you to grow up so I can pass the leadership of the Kirin off to you I don't expect to be able to do that for quite a while yet. You have a lot of growing and learning yet to do before you will need to concern yourself with all this political nonsense. There will come a time when you know you are ready and then you should be able to pull it free."

Jer'rahd blinked looking down at the foal who held a piece of paper before himself and was working on some sort of design for what looked like a crane to try and pull the spear free. Elusive didn't seem too have been paying attention tot he older Kirin and was rapidly sketching something else out that looked like it involved several explosions and a lever with enough length that he would need to be on the moon to use it.

"Ummm." Jer'rahd looked at the plains recognizing how much explosive Elusive was designing in and recalled the Catapult the foal and his friend had built. "Alright maybe that's enough seriousness for today, perhaps we should just get some ice cream on the way back. And maybe forget the plans..." 


	11. Hell to your Doorstep

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Hell to your Doorstep 

[ Crystal Empire, Nap time]

"This is by far the second most delicious looking dream I have ever been in." Dawn state in awe as she drooled profusely.

"I can say I have been in worse, though I am curious what was first?" Rynthia asked still not noticing her own rhyming.

"Auntie Bleu had a dream full of sugar diamonds and candied gemstones one time when mommy and I were poking around. It was the best thing ever!" Dawn proclaimed.

Rynthia nodded, looking around the odd landscape surrounding the pair. " I understand how that would please, but I find it odd this dream is made of cheese."

The two foals stood in the center of a large field that seemed to be layered mozzarella cheese, with various Swiss and Munster cheeses growing up out of the surface shaped like various plants. In the distance they could see a castle that bore a remarkable similarity to New Canterlot castle that was made entirely out of cheddar.

"Did we make a wrong turn Dawn, I don't know any one who would fear a cheese lawn?" Rynthia sighed.

"Nah... we somehow got into Brainy's dream I think. And this is a nightmare for him trust me." Dawn smirked stifling a giggle.

"What?" Rynthia stammered looking at her sister.

"Sorry can't say, when we find him you'll have to ask him." Dawn chimed, darting over and taking a big bite out of a 'tree' made of Gorgonzola. The 'plant' groaned and fell over sending a number of Gouda squirrels and birds darting out of the branches. The swarm made a dash for the other 'trees' as Dawn gave chase.

"Noooooooo get back here and git in mai belly!" Dawn yelled.

Rynthia slapped her face with a hoof turning to go after Dawn and try to get her sister to calm down and help her find Elusive when a scream snapped her attention to the castle in the distance.

"Sounds like Brainy to me." Dawn stated floating over Rynthia.

Rynthia blinked looking up at her sister in surprise.

"Dawn I know you often try, but since when can you actually fly?"

"Same way you are rhyming without any effort. It's a dream, you can do what you want so long as it doesn't screw up some one elses dreams... though I think that went out the window with that spell thingy. Any way Brainy's in trouble. Super Dawn away, WOOOSH!" The Kirin filly took off like a shot towards the castle making wooshing noises and other flying sounds like her comics did. Rynthia rolled her eyes and took off after her sister her hooves thudding on the yellow surface beneath her.

====================================================

[Tamberlane, inside the shield ]

"...and that's why we need to find the bell. Otherwise there's a chance that the whole island will vanish with us on it for whoever knows how long." Twilight concluded.

"Delightful. Do you think the bell on his neck was the one we need to find?" Octavia asked.

"Not likely. It chimed a little as he moved so it's more likely a fetish, or maybe a focal point that may connect him to the bell, but it is unlikely the actual bell. Still it may be enough of a connection that he can activate it to BE the actual bell as he needs it. That would explain how he rang it quickly enough that Starswirl barely made it off the island." Trixie pointed out.

"That's a good observation."Twilight admitted. "Have you read Green Beard's theorem of metamagical manipulation?"

"You have three copies of it in your library, one of them autographed, of course Trixie has read it." Trixie rolled her eyes. "Though Trixie thinks Seth the Scaleless' book on quantum entanglement and connectivity is a better read if a bit more technical."

"Hmm true... though I think you can stop calling it my library. You've lived there longer than I have now. I'm pretty sure that makes Golden Oak Library yours." Twilight agreed.

"Well then Trixie would like you to come and get the last of your boxes out of the basement then. One of them smells funny and keeps making noises and Trixie is afraid to look." Trixie sighed. "Though that is still a relief. Trixie was unsure how to remove the arch way where she has made Trevor's growth chart."

"Hehe, at least your foal stood still long enough to measure his height every year. Dawn is far too wiggly and Pip's didn't change much at all." Luna added in.

"There is also a mural he painted in one of the upstairs rooms... just a bunch of colors he smeared every where when he was three, but Trixie thinks it looks wonderful..."

"I know the feeling. Pip made this amazing Macaroni picture when he was younger and some how it even survived the castle's destruction..." Luna began.

Lyra and Octavia spare a glance at each other as the two mares begin to chat about their respective foals with Twilight chiming in about Elusive every so often. The non mothers both had friends already who wouldn't shut up about their foals, but at the very least these three didn't seem interested in asking when Lyra and Octavia might have foals of their own.

The five of them had gone down the stairs in the prison room after finding the main door was mage locked. Underneath their cells was a massive set of catacombs. The group was going to head back up and ambush Grogar when Luna caught the scent of salt and the sea again, stronger than before. The idea that there might be an exit to the water down here was enough for them to choose to press on. So far they had found nothing of note save some old bundled sticks and ancient rags near the end of the stairs, which they used to make torches. Lyra had helped out considerably by pointing out some of the crumbled stones near the base of the stairs were flint and could be used to make the fires. With no magic they were forced to carry them in their mouths, though they took turns as the torches burnt down. It was Lyra's turn at the moment, a fact some of them were quite thankful for due to her constant chipperness.

The catacombs looked to have once been the basement of the castle above as old empty barrels and rotted wood and crumbled stone rested against the walls like this was an old storage area. Under hoof there was nothing but black sand, though if one dug down a bit they could find the old stone floor under it.

The sand itself felt damp as if it was washed in by recent waves rather than blown in or sunk into the under-croft. The odd part was that they had been walking for some time and nothing seemed to change. They could see their own hoof prints trailing back into darkness, but they had come upon no walls aside from the one to their left they had followed, not even any pillars to support the ceiling. It was odd.

Still it wasn't too long until all of the group could smell the salt air and hear the faint echos of the waves crashing against rocks. They all rushed forward towards the sound the crashing progressively getting louder. Twilight had started to pull ahead of the galloping group when the purple mare suddenly vanished before them causing every one else to pull up short.

There was a loud yelp and an even louder splash. After a moment there was some thrashing and a good bit of cursing from below them.

Lyra moved the torch closer noticing that the black sand simply ended with a little cliff that seemed to be made of the same stone as the floor under the sand.

"Looks like it's an underground dock." Luna observers leaning over the edge to look at the stone work.

"Interesting but I still don't see any light. Is it night time or is the entrance still too far away?" Octavia commented.

"Trixie sees a set of steps leading into the water, there seems to be a small boat of some sort over there at the edge of the light." Trixie added looking over to the right.

"Oh yeah thanks guys... let me drown." Twilight cursed.

"One you can't drown from water and two you have wings that you keep forgetting to use." Luna rolled her eyes. " How you continue to forget you are an alicorn is beyond me."

"Well excuse me I'm still new to it." Twilight snorted, her wings fanning lifting her out of the water.

"Sparkle look out!" Trixie shouted. Twilight turned her head glancing behind her to Where Trixie pointed, her eyes widened as a massive form rose out of the water behind her. Dark water dripped off it's body as the water foamed and frothed around it. Blackish green flesh covered it with small patches of scales here and there. Bare rotted muscle, and in some places bone, shown through places in it's skin and scales reflecting in the torch light. The creatures massive head was mostly skull, the skin and scaled flesh peeled back like a rolled up sock around it's neck. It had no eyes. but tiny points of red light flickered from within it's hollow eye sockets. The massive serpent opened it's mouth with a hiss, fangs dripping with oranges icor.

"SNAKE!" Screamed both Twilight and Lyra as the latter dropped the torch.

Twilight whipped herself back wards trying to get as far from the water as she could, though Octavia rushed after her trying to grab the panicked mares tail before she could get lost in the darkness.

Lyra however took a different approach to panic after she screamed she rushed forward and launched herself off the ledge over the water surprising the massive undead serpent by landing hooves first on it's open mouth , slamming the jaws shut with her weight.

Luna and Trixie watched as the lime green mare continued screaming as she very quickly began ripping the undead snake apart, jamming the unlit torches she carried into cracked sections of bone or simply bludgeoning it's head with her hooves as she clung onto it.

The massive serpent didn't sit still for this and started thrashing and jerking around trying to dislodge the green menace on it's face, The massive coiled body flung water into the air smashing against the rock walls and ceiling as it lashed about snapping and trying to smash Lyra to paste as it drove it's head into the walls, knocking holes in them and collapsing the tunnel out to sea behind it.

Luna blinked as Lyra slipped inside the hollow eye socket still screaming, though very quickly the snakes head started jerking around as the green unicorn started kicking the fool out of it from the inside.

The snake it self seemed to have gone mad from the intrusion and was repeated smashing it's head against the far wall trying to kill the pony that had crawled inside of it. The scene itself was sicking and disturbing as bits of stone, water, rotted snake flesh, scales, and bone were flung about in a shower of gore and destruction.

Finally there was one last resounding crack of bone and a very large section of the serpents skull was kicked free spiraling through the air to crash in the sand before Trixie, the shard larger than the mare it nearly hit.

The serpent thrashed a few more times, the red lights in it's eyes going out before it finally fell, crashing into the sand and flinging more debris into the air in a choking cloud. Luna and Trixie backed away from it coughing as the dust slowly settled showing a lime green mare still kicking the snake's skull into pulp.

"Well that was interesting."Trixie admitted.

"She was part of the Six Sixty Sixth monster hunters. A well renowned member as well. Supposedly her first mission had her destroying a large serpent that had been attacking a village... I think we just witnessed the how of it and possibly the why." Luna muttered.

"Trixie has never seen any one panic into a fight before."

"I have, though that doesn't make this sort of twist to a fight or flight response any less impressive." Luna stated.

"Not to interrupt but would one of you lend me a hoof the Princess is still going nuts." Octavia called from further away in the darkness. There was a sound of impact and another thunder of collapsing stones as the repeated panicked mantra of ' snake' went silent.

"Oh never mind, the wall seems to have stopped her." Octaiva added. " Hmm? Well now , it seems she found another room."

Luna rolled her eyes before blinking, taking note that she could see , even though the torch had sputtered out. Looking up she noticed several holes the snake had punched in the walls showing what looked to be sunlight streaming through.

"Well now things are looking up." Luna stated smiling at the sunshine.

"Did I get it?" Lyra asked looking around in a panic.

===================================================

Dawn was giggling like a mad mare when they finally found the source of the scream. A large black scaled Kirin was running across the sliced baby Swiss cheese lawn while a trio of Gorgonzola diamond dog like monsters with mozzarella hair and a odd cone of Munster on one of their heads that red Dunce with several letters backwards, ran after him.

"I would think all of these surprises would have made be numb, but after seeing this I still think it's dumb." Rynthia frowned watching the full grown Kirin running around screaming." First of all why is he wearing a hat, and secondly who is that?"

Rynthia pointed to the galloping Kirin.

"That's Brainy. " Dawn stated between bites of the ground. " The dunce thing is because he's afraid of Auntie Twilight and Auntie Celestia being disappointed in him."Dawn muttered chewing on the cheese. " And you didn't hear this from me, but the cheese is cause of what happened to him a couple months ago. Auntie Celestia got a new cook at the castle and he specialized in Muleican food. Well the first dinner they had, the cook made enchiladas. Well turns out auntie Twilight is really afraid of them cause of all the cheese or something and when she freaked out she managed to fling the entire serving dish of enchiladas off the table and onto Brainy. So he gets covered in pipping hot cheese and his moms freaking out with Celestia trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Well he loses it and starts tearing around the dining room slinging cheese every where and smashing into things cause he can't see and he thinks the cheese was attacking him and his moms and then the Guards bust in and see Twilight panicking and this cheese monster running around and they start chasing it and the noise and shouting just make Brainy panic even more. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, but yeah, so now he's got a fear of cheese."

Rynthia just stared at her sister as she told the story her ears flattening to her head.

"How is that something that I could miss? Seriously when the heck was this?"

"Mommy and you went off to see the snow ponies. Daddy and I were in the kitchen for a snack when it all started and we poked our heads out to look. Daddy managed to stop the Guards from attacking Brainy while Celestia tried her best to quiet both Twilight and Brainy down."

Rynthia slapped her face with a hoof and sighed. "While the story has me taken aback, why is Elusive an adult and black?"

"By the stars Stripy, you can't just go around asking why some ones black!" Dawn gasped.

"Not sure I under stand that slight, but I mean he's supposed to be short, seven, and his fur should be white."

"Oh that. Yeah that's what he looked like in a past life. Guess he was a full grown Kirin then." Dawn nodded.

"What he was like before he was born? Does that explain why you were an alicorn."

Dawn winced a little at that though she didn't respond. Rynthia thought her sisters actions were rather odd but Rynthia didn't think this was any sort of trick, still she would need to ask Dawn a few things later , right now there was a more pressing issue.

"I think Brainy needs help." Dawn muttered watching as the other Kirin rushed towards a cheese tree as if to climb it, only to freak out at the sight of it and run off the other way as a horde of birds made of provolone started chasing him.

"On that I can agree. I suppose we can eat the villains, but pity there is no brie."

==================================================

[Tamberlane]

With a last push the wall gave way fully with a loud crash as rocks tumbled into the other room. Moving in carefully Octavia and Luna glanced around the new area , both of them disappointed.

Lyra and Twilight moved in quickly afterward happy to get away from the dead snake with Trixie following up the rear.

"She plowed face first into a wall, how is she not even bruised?" Trixie demanded.

"It is very very difficult to hard a god. There are ways but they are not common. Most injuries that might cripple a normal pony are barely noticeable by us." Luna commented.

"Sounds like fun to me." Lyra commented.

"It usually is not for many reasons." Luna sighed sadly prompting the others to let the conversation go.

The group had opted to try the hole in the wall rather the water logged tunnel, just in case there were more snakes in the water.

The room they entered was much like the catacombs they had left, though there were glowing torches along the walls and unlike the last room this one was filled with stuff that were still intact.

Chests, suitcases, ladders, boxes, wagons, random piles of clothing, weapons, and dozens of other things that seemed to come from both ancient times as well as modern filled the room. Luna even took note of a few pieces of a train, likely the one that they had rode in on. There was a large double door on the far side of the room and a shadowy lofted roof with exposed rafters and a few other items hanging from the old surprisingly sturdy look wooden beams running the length of the wide room.

"My Cello!" Octavia surprisingly shouted as she made her way across the room towards a large instrument case that Luna had overlooked before. Given the parts of the train it wasn't surprising that their luggage was here.

"I don't suppose you see a little box about yay big." Lyra mutters gesturing with her fore hooves. While the ring she got to propose to Bon Bon wasn't that pricey she'd rather get it back than have to buy a new one.

"Trixie thinks there is something off here. Who brought all of this here and why is none of it dusty, not even the old stuff?" Trixie muttered.

"Good point." Twilight commented, scanning over the stuff. She froze as she noticed something move, rather close to the gray earth pony."OCTAVIA GET AWAY FROM THAT!"

"What?" the gray earth pony asked. She was currently standing on her back legs having set her cello upright before opening the case. Her ear twitched a little as she caught the movement from the corner of her eye. She turned to look at what at first seemed to be a wooden box at least until it suddenly sprouted ragged teeth and a large tongue as it lunged for the earth pony it's splintery wooden limbs like a scarecrow outstretched to grab her. Octavia's ears flatten at the otherworldly snarl the thing emitted and she pushed back hard with her fore hooves, falling away from her cello and onto her back as the creature's lunge carried it over the prone earth pony.

The gray mare kicked with her back legs, forcing herself to roll backwards avoiding another of the creatures that lept at her. She winced as her roll pushed her back into a wooden ladder, her head hitting the bottom rung. The creatures both turned, rushing at the prone mare only for her to reach above her head and yank the ladder down over her body smashing the tall wooden ladder down atop it's head, or whatever counted as a head. The second one moved to the side as the first struggled to push the ladder off it's body only to find that it's prey had stood up and twisted the ladder in her fore hooves pinning the creatures spindly arm between the rungs. The second made a dash for the mare only for her to fling open the ladders other legs into a locked V shape tipping it so it fell on top of the first monster. The pair of them started to thrash as Octavia turned her body dragging the ladder and it's captives across the floor and into a pile of ship parts knocking the large pile over atop of them.

The others had their own issues as a half a bakers dozen of the creatures had emerged to take on the four mares.

Trixie hung back staying out of the others way, without her magic she wasn't much of a fighter. The former show mare wasn't happy with that, but watching the others she was well aware of how far out of her league she was compared to them when it came to fighting.

It was like those games Trevor played with his friends. Trixie was like that rogue class, not good at direct combat, but useful in random skills, maybe even a bard or duel classed with a mage. The others on the other hoof.

Twilight flapped her wings as she reared up onto her back hooves blocking an attack with her fore hooves as her wings shoved her backwards across the floor sliding on her rear hooves to another pile of rubble. The creature that came after her looked like a metal crate with iron arms and legs and a body that seemed mostly mouth and teeth. Bug like eyes on stalks poked up from the top of the crate like body, the black orbs fixated on Twilight.

Turning to the pile of rubble quickly, Twilight yanked free the pry bar she had spotted, bringing the metal bar to bare gripped in her teeth. She blocked the next attack, knocking the things clawed limbs aside. The vibration rattled her teeth and probably cracked a few, but if her alicorn god hood still held , they'd be fixed before she even felt the first flash of a tooth ache.

Trixie watched Sparkle trade blows with the creature. Neither of them gaining an advantage,though Twilight's weapon put a large number of dents into the thing. The mare wielded the pry bar like a sword, darting in and out of range of the thing and striking it where she could. Had the monster been flesh and blood she likely would have split it open by now.

Trixie didn't know Twilight could use a sword, but she recognized that she knew far less about her former rival than she once thought. Still the bookworm could easily be considered a wizard with levels in fighter, or that one class... what was it, black blade or something like that?

Lyra had found a weapon as well and she had snatched it up in her forelegs without hesitation, turning to face the pair of chests chasing her. The two creatures were both odd as one had six legs with it's body looking like an old steamer trunk. As the lid flipped open it displayed a purple slimy looking tongue and rotted teeth that would be more at home in a dentists office on a 'don't let this happen to you' poster.

The second creature had eight ragged looking limbs with the body like a large purple hat box. It was smaller than the first but much quicker and seemed to have dripping fangs poking out of the box rather than a wide open maw.

Being faster didn't help it as Lyra shifted onto her back legs bringing what looked to Trixie like an old boat gaff around and into the smaller creature. She yanked upward on the pole lifting the smaller creature kicking wildly into the air. She started spinning the gaff around her head, slinging the smaller creature around , the weapon picking up speed with the flailing creatures weight hooked on the end.

The larger creature was hesitant though it tried to time it so the small creature spun past before it lunged only for Lyra to change the arc to bring the weapon up suddenly and down over her head smashing the smaller creature to bits on the larger steamer trunk , and causing the larger monster to stagger under the blow as two of it's limbs were ripped free from the impact.

Trixie thought Lyra fought like the descriptions of the barbarian class. At least when it came to snakes.  
Perhaps a ranger if serpents were a favored enemy. The mare was quite scary.

Queen Luna however was absolutely terrifying. Of the seven that came after them all, four had gone after Luna and two of them were turned to splinters before they even finished their first lunge at the mare. The former Princess of the Night didn't even seem to be fighting, she seemed to be dancing though the attacks. Her hooves or wings not blocking so much as guiding blows away with ease as she slipped between or past attacks directed at her. The monsters might as well have been standing still. That wasn't to say she was purely defensive, the first two scrapped chests showed the power of the few blows she did land, but with the other two she almost seemed to be playing with them.

Trixie blinked as she caught on, Luna wasn't playing. The Changeling Queen's eyes were keeping tabs on the others of the group with glances here and there. She was watching the others fight, perhaps gauging their skill? It was hard to tell what the Changeling Queen thought. Still when Lyra felled the smaller one Luna slid under an attack from one of the ones she was keeping busy and punched her hoof through it's body in one fluid motion.

Trixie was not sure what class to consider the Goddess of War. Probably one of them that was banned for being too broken.

Still it was the musician that surprised her most. Octavia was moving and flipping about like a mare half her supposed age, using bits of furniture, be it the ladder, random poles, chairs, or even the dazed creatures themselves, everything seemed to be both a weapon and a shield to her. Like the Queen every move she made seemed calculated, though she was more reactionary than Luna, and far less violent.

One of the creatures ripped free of the ladder and swung the half of it that remained intact at the gray earth pony. The mare dove at the ladder, stretching out so that she passed between the rungs without getting touched, although the other monster that was on her tail was not so lucky and met it's end at the forceful swing and subsequent destruction of the ladder.

Octavia's moves were like a dance as well, though where Luna's were impact laden and soaked in violence, Octavia's seemed more about positioning where she should be and using momentum, random objects, and even her own opponents against her targets. Unlike Queen Luna's movements Trixie found she actually recognized the style that Octavia was using. With that style Trixie pegged the gray earth pony as an easy bard duel class monk.

Trixie still wasn't sure why she was assigning classes to every one, perhaps she was just bored, or trying to distract herself from the fact she was a captive again. Most likely the latter, as she was struggling not to freak out.

It seemed like longer, but only two or three minutes later all of the creatures were either destroyed, or what ever passed for unconsciousness for them. Granted Luna made quite sure that they would never rise again, so dead was the proper word even though Twilight and Octavia hadn't struck any killing blows.

"Oh wow Octavia? Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Twilight asked moving over to check on the musician. " I didn't know you knew any kinda kung fu."

"Kung fu?" Octavia blinked and sighed. "That was not any sort of martial art I assure you."

"You're kidding? " Lyra commented. " That was amazing what ever it was, I've never seen any one moves like that."

"I have, though not quite that fluidly." Luna admitted getting a look of sadness on her face as she thought of her friends who knew such skills who were no longer with her.

Octavia winced a little cracking her back before moving to check on her cello, opening the case to look over the instrument. "I've never trained in any sort of martial art. All that fancy hoof work was just Ballet from when I was younger before I picked up the cello."

"Ballet? That was ballet?" Lyra demanded.

"Griffonese Ballet if I am not mistaken." Trixie commented as Luna's eyes widened.

Octavia glanced back at at Trixie apraisingly. " Indeed. You are familiar with it then? It is not as well practiced as it used to be, and rarely by any one without wings."

"Trixie used to travel quite a bit and has been to the Griffon lands. Trixie has seen the training that those seeking to master ballet go through and Trixie would rather join the Guard, their training seems easier."

"I doubt that "Twilight muttered looking at Luna, surprised when the Changeling simply shrugged.

"Jer'rahd has studied it as well, though he does not posses the dexterity required to preform it, he has incorporated some of the teachings into his own training." Luna stated. "Miss Melody might I suggest you not rush ahead of the group like that again. This whole place seems like one big trap. The giant snake, the baited loot in here."

"It's like one of my brothers games, ogres and oubliettes, we've got a party of adventurers and there's traps and monsters every where." Twilight stated getting a curious glance from Trixie.

"It seems so. Though I am not a fan of those sort of games, they always wind up being to wordy to be good video games. Still we should be careful, and be quick. All the noise has likely attracted Grogar or other monsters and until these rings are removed I would prefer to avoid encounters. I am not comfortable fighting at partial strength." Luna admitted.

The others nod in agreement as they all head for the door on the far side of the room, Lyra and Twilight carrying their new weapons and Octavia slinging her Cello onto her back.

Trixie paused at the door looking at the devastation wrought behind them. This was HALF strength?

======================================================

Rynthia shook her head slightly looking at the carnage wrought by her sister. Dawn had plowed into the swarm of cheese monsters , claws and teeth ripping and biting as she not only fought but ate mouthfuls of them as well. Honestly it wasn't that far off Dawn's normal table habits when presented with a dish she loved. Her mother was not thrilled with the manner of her daughters eating, though her father seemed to have no issue with it so long as she cleaned up after ward. Seriously their father was such a push over.

The large black furred and scaled Kirin looked on with shock as the monsters designed to deal with him were quickly wiped out by a bottomless appetite.

Rynthia looked up at the larger Kirin and felt herself blush a little at the muscular stallion's visage. She whipped her head trying to clear the thought of it from her mind. Sure he was handsome like the princes in her books but this was Elusive, her auntie's son... sure they were not really related, and if this is what he was going to look like when he grew up...

No... bad Rynthia... you're only six she told herself.

" I am unaware who you are, but thank you..." the Kirin began before he screeched in panic as Dawn threw a chunk of string cheese at him. The 'attack' sent the stallion leaping into the air in a panic to get it off of him. Rynthia frowned as her handsome prince image was destroyed and at Dawn's lunatic cackling at her prank.

"Dawn your antics may have a price... at the very least that was not nice." Rynthia shouted.

"I couldn't help it Stripey. This opportunity prolly will never happen again. " Dawn cackled.

"Wait, Stripy? Dawn, Rynthia? What? Why are you grown up and why is Dawn a black alicorn?" Elusive asked.

Dawn's mood suddenly shifted as she stopped laughing and got up dusting herself off. She snapped the answer at Elusive before Rynthia had a chance too.

"Cause we're in a stupid dream Brainy, Swhy you look like your grandpa and Stripey looks like she thinks she's gonna look, Just focus on how we are supposed to look and you'll see how we are supposed to be." Dawn snorted. " And hurry up cause we gotta find the others."

Elusive blinked glancing back to stare at Rynthia a moment making her feel some what uncomfortable as she wasn't sure what the colt was seeing, though after a moment or two elusive returned to how he normally looked

Rynthia frowned not thrilled with their situation at all plus she wanted some answers. " Hold it Dawn something is amiss, I want to know how you know all this?"

"And why your attitude suddenly shifted when I mentioned what you look like." Elusive added as the cheese fields around them faded.

"I dun wanna talk about it. Side's I told you already Stripey." Dawn sighed.

" You told me little of why you are like this, you know more than you let on, what is going on sis?" Rynthia stated.

"Yeah and how is Rynthia getting all her rhymes right?" Elusive added, finally back to the age he was supposed to be, though clearly a little surprised that they were all floating in a starry void.

"Cause I remember what I was when I'm here." Dawn stated solomly and in a voice that didn't seem right coming from the small Kirin." Birdy said I wouldn't remember, but I do when I'm here and I don't like it. It worries mommy that I know it... I don't know I know it when I'm not dreaming, but I know I know when i am."

"I don't think that helped." Elusive added completely confused Rynthia nodding in agreement.

"GOOD! I'm done talking bout this. I'm not supposed to be serious and moody, I'm six. I don't have to be grown up until I'm at LEAST nine and that's still FOOOOREVER away." Dawn rambled. " Let's just go find 3P, Buggy, or Puffyhead."

Dawn started marching off over the cheese fields leaving Rynthia and Elusive completely confused about her. Granted that was sort of normal, so they quickly followed after her.

===================================================

[ Four months ago, Crystal Empire ]

This mare was maddening. Glimmer fanned her wings in aggravation as the bucket of oatmeal she had set up as payback for being tricked into eating her alfalfa at dinner fell perfectly... into a larger bucket that didn't even splash.

The white furred earth pony mare set the larger bucket she had produced out of no where aside and continued walking down the corridor as Glimmer seethed in the closet where she had been spying on her.

Her parents both left for about a week, choosing to go represent the Crystal Empire in the first Equss games. Evidently at one of the last Council meeting of the gods the Equestrian games were opted to be expanded to include all of Equss with countless new events being added for the best each nation had to offer. It sounded exciting, but she and Shin were not allowed to go due to the fact it was being held this first year in Stalliongrad in the far east. There had been a lot of political turmoil in the area in the last few years so neither of her parents thought it safe. So they had hired a live in sitter that evidently came highly recommended. Her father didn't like the idea, but as usual her mother convinced him.

The sitter was a white furred Earth pony mare. She had a darker pink mane and tail, though the former was covered in a large faded blue and white bonnet and the latter was in a bun and covered by a large , way out of style, blue school marm dress that the mare wore every where. She insisted on being called Mrs. Diane, though she acted like it was her first name rather than her last.

This was confounding her. While Glimmer normally didn't go after the foal sitters her parents hired to watch her and Shin, this one had aggravated her from the start. She had yet to call Glimmer by her proper name, calling her glimmy or glam and once she had been called Charlie. The white mare didn't seem old enough to be forgetful so Glimmer figured she was doing it on purpose, particularly since she called Shin by his full name once and when he corrected her she had called him Shin since. Glimmer tried correcting her and got a lecture about not correcting her elders. That was the speech where she had been called Charlie.

There had been other things too, earlier bed times, more naps, limited play time and harder focus on studies even though it was the weekend and nearing the end of the school year. The thing that pushed her over the edge was the trick from dinner last night. A promise that if she ate all her alfalfa she and Shin would get a special desert that the sitter had made.

Glimmer hated alfalfa.

Still she ate the horrid stuff, curious about what the mare might have made, it was clear she had been baking something as she smelled like flour and Glimmer was curious.

The special desert turned out to be Candied Alfalfa.

That had been the last straw for Glimmer.

Shin didn't have any problems with her, also he actually liked alfalfa..., it had to be a Changeling thing, also the mare was actually nice to him.

Despite that she was set on getting revenge on this mare and making sure she never came back.

Unfortunately everything she did failed.

Rubber snakes attacking from the cabinet, largely ignored as they landed on her. Mane dye shampoo didn't seem to change the color of the white mare at all. Hot pepper in the food, she added more pepper before eating it with no issue. Leaky drink glasses didn't work. Collapsing furniture some how managed to fall apart in such a way that it put itself back together in a more comfortable position. Trapped pies, falling buckets, everything Glimmer could come up with the mare either stopped, dodged, or didn't activate properly. It was like she had some weird sense that warned her of anything the pink pegicorn did before it happened.

Glimmer briefly considered upping some of her attempts, but some of the pranks she knew might actual hurt the mare and she didn't want to hurt her, just run her off, or at the very least let her know that she wasn't welcome here. She considered setting up something with some mice she knew she could find, but she knew the reaction to a mouse was often to try and kill it. Given this mare's completely disarming of everything Glimmer did, she didn't want to risk the mice getting hurt.

Late in the night the pink pegi corn snuck out of bed and into the adjoining playroom. Once there she searched a few of her books by the light of her horn looking over the lists of pranks and jokes that could be done. There wasn't anything there she hadn't tried or was willing to try.

She also found Shin's new copy of Haylights. While the foalish magazine was usually beneath her with it's simple puzzles and lame jokes and such, occasionally the morality comic thing caught her interest.

Gosling and Gander, a good foal/ bad foal comic. It was a simple 'do this and don't do that' scenario with little ducks playing the good foal and bad foal. She didn't care about the morals, as most times they were simple and obvious or completely ridiculous, but occasionally Gosling was shown playing a prank or doing something mean. Sometimes what ever the duck did was something Glimmer could do herself or at least base a payback off of. It was where she found the rubber snake trick.

Finding nothing this time but dining etiquette Glimmer left the magazine on the floor hoping perhaps even the slight mess to the room would annoy the foal sitter some how.

She rolled over onto her back with a sigh on the carpet. She couldn't think of anything to deal with the foal sitter. Maybe she could turn the oven up really high so she burned all the food and they had to order take out, or get one of the castle chefs back at least? Mrs' Diane had been insistent that she prepare all the meals and had Glimmers mother give the staff a few days off.

Knowing how the last four days had gone, the sitter would probably serve the burnt food, give a speech that it built character to suffer though something like this and then eat it herself like it was nothing after calling Glimmer, Greg or something.

"ARRRGH. This is driving me insane, why won't she go away!" Glimmer flails on the floor in a shouted whisper.

"Oh giving up already? Pity it was getting rather interesting, despite the fact you never had a chance." chuckled a voice.

Glimmer rolled over quickly to her hooves, her eyes shifting around the dark room lighting up the corners without seeing anyone.

"Who's there?" Glimmer stammered.

"Hmm oh dear seems I said that part out loud, ah well I was getting bored any way. You're a interesting one. You have a bit of a mean streak in you, but you are only willing to push it so far. You care about yourself the most, but you won't go far enough to actually hurt some one. You also care enough about others to worry about how they feel. While you are upset that Shin is being treated better than you, you don't blame or target him for it."

"Hes my brother …... now who are you?! We demand you show yourself."

"Did you just slip into the royal 'we'? Oh my stars that is so precious." The voice giggled and Glimmer blinked as it seemed right above her.

She slowly looked up to see a face that was vaguely pony like with a goats beard, mismatched eyes, a zebra mane, and a pair of horns that each seemed to come from a different animal atop it's head. The rest of the creature was oddly serpentine with differing legs and a draconic tail that was wrapped around the light fixture dangling from the ceiling. The long figure dangled down from above with it's head almost eye level with her. It met her gaze and smiled showing a single long fang in one side of it's mouth.

"Hello." it said.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Glimmer said... loudly.

The door was flung open as Glimmer back peddled tripping over her her own hooves as she fell over some of the toys she had left out and flipped back to crash into the toy box with a loud thud.

"Dissy the goal wasn't to scare the pink off of her." stated another voice coming from the doorway.

"I know. I know, but I was getting bored and with as slow as that rabbit's writing this it'll take forever to get it done, let alone get to the point. Besides she was giving up." the one called Dissy stated.

Glimmer peeked her head out of the box seeing the large creature still swinging from the light by his tail, talking with the foal sitter Mrs Diane.

" Well if we had a clear reason why we were watching her it would be different. All we have is a vague hint to come and see her from Mirth." The foal sitter sighed. " And I'm bored too, and do you know how much wearing all this flour itches?"

"I can imagine dear. Still if the rabbit would get his act together to explain compassion properly we wouldn't need to be here. Is it animals? Is it kindness? Is it the law of the wild? Who knows? Make up your mind already!" Discord rolled his eyes, the orbs falling out of his head and tumbling over across the floor to stop at the toy box looking up at the peering Glimmer before rolling back to the hanging Draconians. "What is that!" Glimmer shouted pointing a hoof at the Draconequus as she peeked up from over the edge of the toyboy.

"Hmm what indeed. I'm a who Missy." Discord ranted turning suddenly into a odd little big bellied biped creature, with a long nose, rosy cheeks and a very odd curling hairstyle that was decorated with hearths warming lights.

"Dissy we haven't been up here very much since she was born, and it's not like you're a household name any more." Mrs. Diane giggled. Glimmer thought that was even weirder than the creature.

"Oh well then. Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a beast of wealth and taste. I've been around a long long year, Turned many a pony's hair to toothpaste..." the one called Dissy stated as music started in the back ground.

"No, No stop it, stop it, you're not going to do a song while I'm here. No singing!" Glimmer fussed.

"Fine..." Dissy snapped tossing his hands in the air, and the arms along with them. The two limbs bounce off the ground on either side of him and he sighed." Oh lovely, disarmed by a seven year old, this day is going great."

Mrs. Diane smirked picking up one arm with her hooves and reattaching it. "His names Discord, he used to be a pretty big deal until he met me, now he's still a big deal, just not in the same way."

"My dear did I just detect a hint of innuendo from you?" Discord cracks a smirk.

"A little bit." Mrs. Diane chuckled helping him with his other arm.

Glimmer however had had enough.

" Nope, no that's it. I've had enough of this madness. I don't care who you are Dissy or Discord or whatever but you are not supposed to be here, I'm getting the Guards and you Mrs. Diane are the WORST FOAL SITTER EVEAH!" Glimmer all but bellowed as she climbed out of the toy chest yanking a stuffed monkey from her head and storming off towards the door, her little pink hooves thudding heavily on the carpet.

Discord blinked at that wincing a little before turning his head quickly to Mrs. Diane whose eyes had gone wide with shock. The earth pony's eyes suddenly started to water and Discord quickly broke out a little mini umbrella.

"Now you've done it." The Draconequus sighed as the white earth pony mare suddenly started to bawl.

"SHE SAID I'M THE WORST ! AHHHH I'VE TRIED SO HARD... AHHH WHAT IF THE CAKE TWINS REALLY HATED ME TOO BUT JUST PRETENDED CAUSE I LIVED WITH THEM AHHHHH!"

Glimmer stopped and stared at the scene in confusion. Massive twin fountains of tears flooded from the mares eyes showering the playroom to the point where Discord had pulled on a yellow raincoat and hip waders. The strange creature also seemed to have constructed a boat some how and had gathered the stuffed animals in the room and put them in pairs on the small ship.

Glimmer took another step towards the door and hesitated as Mrs. Diane's bawling continued and her words turned into unintelligible gibbering. Discord seemed to be trying to calm her down , but it wasn't working very well.

Despite everything this mare had done, Glimmer felt bad. She hated feeling bad about doing something to some one who deserved it, but a lot of times she did. It was never enough for her to stop, particularly if she thought her target deserved it. If they got mad about one of her pranks she felt more justified... but this... This wasn't the sort of aftermath she wanted.

Glimmer sighed turning around and walking back over to the bawling mare, taking the little umbrella that Discord handed as she got closer. The play room was gonna be flooded soon.

"Hey... ummm Mrs. Diane... " Glimmer muttered , barely heard over the bawling pony. " Hey! Look... okay.. sorry i shouldn't have yelled at you... you're... you're not the worst foal sitter ever..."

"Really?" Mrs. Diane whimpered loudly, with the largest snot bubble Glimmer had ever seen growing out of her nose.

" Ummm yess..." Glimmer blinked as Discord handed her a tissue which she took with her magic and held up to the mares nose.

The sound of a fog horn filled the room as the earth pony blew her nose and left the rag dripping with goo. Glimmer quickly flung it into a trashcan.

"Really" the earth pony sniffled.

"Yes.. you arn't a bad foal sitter..." Glimmer sighed lying through her teeth if it would get the mare to calm down. She hadn't expected the reaction at all and it was making her feel as miserable as the foal sitter looked.

"Pinkie Promise on it!?"

"What?" Glimmer asked before Discord cut in.

"Now now, I don't think we need to go that far. Besides dear keep in mind that you have been intentionally playing the worst foal sitter you could for the last few days for this test." Discord commented.

"OOOOOOH yeah..." Mrs. Diane stated, perking back up like she hadn't been sobbing uncontrollably for several minutes now.

"Wait!? She's been playing at being a bad sitter!?" Glimmer demanded.

"Yes..." Discord admitted. " Though I don't think she needs to any more. While you're not as good as ole Flutters or even the stripey one, trying to comfort some one who wronged you does fit with what we were looking for."

"Alright now then for cake!" Mrs. Diane chuckled. " You want some chocolate cake Glimmer?"

"It's not alfalfa again is it Mrs. Diane?" Glimmer grumbled before blinking. "Wait did you just use my actual name?"

"Yup, though I still say I should call you Charlie, that's a good name too." The earth pony pulled off her hair kerchief letting a mass of surprisingly curly and bouncy dark pink hair free before she started wiping her fur down with the kerchief as she got rid of the school marm outfit. Her white fur turning pink under the ministrations before her cutie mark was finally revealed as a trio of floating balloons. Glimmer had seen those before. Though it took her a moment to process the sudden change from white school marm to bouncy party pony.

"Wait a minute … you're the mare from all the stained glass windows and that statue the ponies put out side the palace!" Glimmer stammered.

"Yup , Call me Pinkie Pie." Pinkie grinned cleaning the last of the white off her hooves.

"Why is the hero of the Empire foal sitting!?" Glimmer asked. " You supposedly saved every pony from King Sombra's attack and kept the Crystal heart from being taken by Sombra!"

"Cause I like foal sitting?" Pinkie asked.

"I'll take obvious answers to rhetorical questions for three hundred Alex." Discord stated mashing a button on a pedestal with a blue square on the front that had his name on it Glimmer didn't even care any more that hadn't been there a second ago.

"But why have you been so horrible!?" Glimmer asked.

"It was a lesson" Pinkie stated. " Plus we were in the script to be here."

"A lesson?" Glimmer demanded.

"Yup we needed to see how you would react to some one who you normally would hate but couldn't do anything too. We wanted to see if you would escalate things and be a meanie pants or would show kindness and stop before some one got hurt." Discord explained. "Really we didn't have too but that blasted rabbit needed to further the story along. We should have got the half lizard kid, but noooo we get the one for the other Element..."

"So wait." Glimmer interrupts the rant. "I was treated like crap, to teach me a lesson, that I wouldn't need to learn unless I was treated like crap...?"

"Yup" Pinkie agreed.

"That makes no sense!" Glimmer shouted.

"Thus you have achieved a understanding of Life the universe and everything." Discord nodded sagely.

"42!" Pinkie shouted as Glimmer rubbed her head, hoping the promised chocolate cake was at least very good chocolate cake. 


	12. Sweet Child of Mine

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Sweet Child of Mine

[ Two years after the defeat of Tirek ]

Luna yanked her head back from the small bed, stumbling away from it before she sat down against the wall panting hard. Her aqua eyes were wide, as she stared at the sleeping form laying in the crib before her. The castle was almost complete, though her personal quarters had not been fully rebuilt and her family was currently staying in the guest quarters of New Canterlot Castle with this connecting room set up as the nursery.

Luna had been teaching Twilight Sparkle dream walking, the mare having taken to it quite readily, even going so far as pointing out things Luna had been unaware of. One of those things had led her to take a closer look at her daughter's dreams.

Rynthia was fine, her dreams were the usual mishmash of colors and sounds that all most every young foal had.

Dawn's were not.

They were much sharper and focused, full of pictures of things that Luna was not sure the foal had ever even seen. Granted with how often Dawn was riding around on Jer'rahd's back, it was hard to tell exactly where he had taken her so she bore it no mind at first.

Until her daughter dreampt of a cavern.

Luna recognized the cavern. It was one that had been buried in an explosion and was home to a number of atrocities in the past Luna that Luna had willingly ignored as Nightmare Moon. There was no way Jer'rahd would have brought her to that place under Winnysor castle, there was no way he even could have brought her there, Scarlet had destroyed it before the War of Gods.

This lead her to investigate her daughters dreams a little closer, even though she was no longer Goddess of the Moon she could easily mimic the spell she had used for so long. It was not nearly as strong as what Twilight could do. Luna was simply a spectator now, rather than a force that could do something in some one elses dream, but it was more than enough to wander through Dawn's dreams.

Exploring the landscape of her daughters dreams was an experience in of itself. Currently she was watching her daughter dream about playing in a sand box on a cloudless day with the specters of herself and Jer'rahd watching over her. It was all very peaceful and quite adorable in all honesty. Much better than Pips dreams had been since he was a teenager, they often featured Scootaloo and well... after the first few times she stopped visiting his dreams. Dawn's dream was still in sharp detail and Luna still had not seen anything else odd. She was thinking to leave when she felt a flutter of reality that signaled anothers presence in the dream, glancing to the side she caught sight of Twilight trotting into the dream as well. Likely the new Princess was here to check up on Luna and see what was going on.

When the new Princess of the Moon appeared she nodded a greeting to Luna before freezing in place, staring at the sand box, taking a step backwards. Luna blinked and turned around quickly to see what had spooked Twilight, her own eyes widening at the sight of the sandbox.

Foals who have not yet found their identities in life will often show up in their dreams as they were in their previous life, if they were reincarnated. Foal's like Rynthia and Shin were new souls and as such had no previous life to fall back to, often their image of self took longer to form because of that. Dawn had been Dawn since Luna first noticed the oddity of her dreams. At the time Luna had assumed that Dawn was a new soul as well, just a rapidly adjusted one.

The presence of the Goddess of Dreams along with the former Goddess of Dreams in Dawn's dream shattered the delicate illusion of normalcy. Not to say the dream turned dark, it just grew less sharp as it reverted to how a dream was supposed to be. The day was still sunny, the shades of her and Jer'rahd still watched over their foal in the sand box.

But it was no longer Dawn playing in the sand box.

The figure was far too tall to be a foal and would have been taller than Luna had it not been sitting. It's red and aqua colored eyes seemed focused on the play castle it was building, though they darted up to the images of Luna and Jer'rahd occasionally. She sported a pair of wings on her back, one leathery and black like a proper Kirin's the other deep blue and covered with feathers. Her black coat almost seemed to shimmer in the light of the dream scape, and her amber mane and tail fluttered about as if in a unfelt breeze. Her mane was dotted with sparkling points of light that seemed to gather the most around the spiral horn emerging from her forehead. The figure was clearly an adult and had the cutie mark to prove it, a white crescent moon on a gray blue knight's shield.

Nocturne.

Luna had flashed out of the dream so fast she was back peddling across the floor of the nursery before she realized she was out of the dream. The Changeling Queen lay back against the wall staring at the cribs with her daughters in them. All that was in them was the orange scaled Kirin that she had given birth to and her adoptive daughter Rynthia. Both still sleeping soundly.

A bright flash of light filled the nursery followed by a soft pop.

Luna didn't look away from the crib, she didn't have to to know it was Twilight.

"Luna... what was that?" Twilight began. " Why is Nocturne in Dawn's dream?"

"Because it seems... that my daughter is Nocturne... or was..." Luna stated calmly.

"How is that even possible?"

"Well Jer'rahd and I loved each other very much and..."

"LUNA!"Twilight hissed."This could be serious."

"You think I don't know that?" Luna snapped back. " Best case she's simply reincarnated from Nocturne and has no memories. Worst case Nocturne did something to be reborn."

"Is that possible?" Twilight asked.

"Dawn did not put up that glamor in her mind. I was starting to think that it was my fault that her dreams were that clear. I traveled the dream realms quite often when I was heavy with her. Not like Jer'rahd would let me do much physically."

"That can have an effect?"

"I have no idea as far as I know I'm the only mare since Starswirl created the spell to get pregnant while I still had control of the spell. Mortals can't get gods impregnate."

"But Jer'rahd is technically a god sooo."

"Exactly. Keep that in mind if you do any gender swap spells with Tia." Luna snarked as Twilight blushed.

Luna sighed moving away from the wall to the crib looking down at Dawn who had managed to tangle herself up in the blanket and was gnawing on the end of her tail. She could see a small resemblance to Nocturne, though perhaps that wasn't fair given the fact that Nocturne was a composite of she and Jer'rahd, as was Dawn, but in a different way.

"Starswirl says it has nothing to do with the dream walking. In fact he has a few theories about whats going on." Twilight stated suddenly evidently having tapped into her magic to speak with Starswirl on the moon. Luna had not even known he was there when she held the power. She had briefly seen his image when she gained the power, though that had been it. Twilight was studying under him in her free time.

"Some idea is better than nothing."

"Nocturne was killed before Dawn was born so she very much could simply be the former incarnation of Dawn. A chance to raise a lost daughter you didn't expect. His words not mine. The glamor spell confuses him as well, but he knows of no spell that would affect a dream like that."

Luna lets her horn glow shifting the blanket to cover Dawn up again.

"I am not going to take any sort of action just yet. I would like you to keep an eye on her with your nightly rounds and I will do much the same as I am able. Let me know of anything out of the ordinary Twilight."

"Are you going to tell Jer'rahd?"

"I had not planned to."

"You had better. Or I will."

" Don't, he's already been through enough in the last few years I don't want to add more to him."

"You don't think he would take it well?" Twilight frowned.

"He would take it fine, on the outside, I doubt it would even seem to phase him. But it would eat at him as it is eating at me now. If we find nothing and she eventually becomes her own self, I won't worry about it. If she remains Nocturne in her dreams, or she develops manurisums similar to Nocturne, it may be an issue we have to address. But not now. It will be a few years yet before she would dream solidly of who she is supposed to be. Perhaps she simply needs time to become herself."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"No, I am going to be wary, and simply hope that every one else considers my increased attention to Dawn as little more than normal mothers worry. And not that I expect my own daughter to grow up to try and finish what she started in a previous life."

====================================================================

[ Current Day, Crystal Empire, Nap time ]

High pitched screams caused the trio to break into a run, and in Dawn's case a furious flapping of wings as she tore through the air.

The next dream they had come upon was a recreation of the Crystal Palace, though it was filled with blackish and gray crystals and flickering ominous red and green lights. They had yet to figure out whether the dream was Shin's or Glimmer's when they heard the first high pitched scream. Still not sure which of their friends was in trouble, the group rushed off into the palace galloping through it following the screams until they came upon the throne room.

The place was oddly deserted and looked as if it had been for a long time. The throne itself was in shambles the windows smashed out and every bit of the crystal making up the room seemed to have bite marks in it.

At the far side of the room numerous mutated black scaled Kirin were standing around something they had cornered. The took turns lashing out at whatever they had trapped. What ever it was , was big as occasionally one of the monster Kirin would be flung off into the air to crash against a wall. Granted when that happened the monster simply faded into dream stuff and another formed to take it's place.

Despite being menacing, they seemed confused as if they were dealing with something that they hadn't expected.

Dawn fluttered up to the ceiling looking over the large Kirin to what they had cornered. Glimmer lay curled in the corner, hugging something tight to herself and letting out a scream every time one of the monsters roared.

Between her and the Kirin however was a very large, young Hippogryph. Talon had used his magic and was several sizes larger than a normal adult Griffon now He held his ground between Glimmer and the monsters, lashing out with short flickers lightning or a pair of steel claws he was wearing.

Talon was holding them off, but he was visibly shaking in place and Dawn could tell why. His body was covered by a swarming black mass of bugs. Given she had seen the Hippogryph freak out over a toy spider, the amount of willpower he was displaying in not running off in terror was amazing for the seven year old. The monsters roared and he roared back, his cry little more than a high pitched shout despite his size, but Dawn thought it was awesome.

"They've got 3P and Brainy cornered." Dawn snarled as she dropped back down to the others.

Elusive nodded to Dawn and rushed forward at the monsters without a moments pause. Dawn was off the second Elusive started moving leaving Rynthia staring after them.

"SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" The orange Kirin shouted as her battle cry, latching her claws onto the head of the first monster Kirin she landed on, her claws scrabbling at the back of it's neck as she chomped down on it's ear.

Elusive plowed hard into the back legs of the monstrous creatures, knocking them off balance and sending them tumbling as he used his small bulk the best he could. He pressed his attacks, hitting the monsters where he could, following the advice of Uncle Jer'rahd and aiming for soft spots.

Rynthia sighed muttering under her breath about trying to plan something before rushing in, though soon enough she ran into the mix as well, striking at joints and soft spots like her father and mother had shown her with far more skill than Elusive displayed. Still after being attacked while still in her crib and foal napped a few years ago her parents did their best to teach her how to fight.

Dawn had never payed attention during any of Jer'rahd's self defense training, though in all honesty it was unlikely she needed much training. Dawn was fast, strong, and between her teeth, claws, and tail she was a veritable weapon all unto herself considering her young age. It didn't hurt that she acted like a furious wrecking ball of doom any time she went after anything.

Given the nature of the attacks against them, any real threat would have little issue in dealing with a hoof full of foals. These nightmare Kirin however seemed to have issues with things that were not afraid of them. It didn't take long before the lot of them started vanishing one after another until there was nothing left.

Dawn bounded around growling at corners as if expecting them to come back. Though Rynthia noticed she tried to take a bite out of the remains of the crystal throne as well.

Rynthia rushed over to check on Glimmer while Elusive checked Talon.

Talon was panting heavily and shuddering as he struggled not to panic. Bugs swarmed the over-sized Hippogryph, centipedes, roaches , flies, and countless others, all squirming and crawling across him in a writhing mass. The only spots on the Hippogryph that wasn't swarming with bugs were the shining steel pair of gauntlets on his fore limbs.

Glimmer was bruised up and dirty, she looked like she had been hit a few times, her mane and tail were all sorts of mussed up and she was curled around something that she was protecting with her wings and legs.

"Holy crap dude are you alright in there?" Elusive asked his magic grabbing at as many bugs as he could trying to rip them off Talon's face, only for more to seem to form around him. "Also where'd you get the gauntlets?"

"I am decidedly not alright." Talon stammered though he swallowed hard his eyes shutting tight." Is Glimmer alright?"

"She is little more than a bit bruised, though how are you two together, I am confused." Rynthia asked.

"I heard her scream even in my nightmare so I came here and dragged my fear along with me to protect my friend..." the Hippogryph stammered." How did you get here?

"Pretty much the same way, though we followed Dawn's nose. She's gotten surprisingly smart." Elusive points back at the orange Kirin who was rolling across the floor having attacked her own tail thinking it was a new enemy. Elusive slapped his hoof against his face." Well she WAS smart."

"Glimmer you can calm down now... what is that thing, some sort of cow?" Rynthia asked her hoof resting lightly on the pink pegicorn's shoulder.

The creature Glimmer was curled around was a small odd looking creature. It looked some what like a pig, though with a long tail with a bit of fluff on the end like a cows. It had a pattern of angular patches on its yellowish tan fur that were a bright purple. The creature had long rabbit like ears and what looked to be a short elephant trunk for a nose. It's soft blue eyes were wide and it squeaked in fear as Rynthia approached as if trying to get away from her by pulling back under Glimmer's wing.

"It's okay, they're my friends...and Dawn." Glimmer muttered to the creature, the beast seemed to relax a little at her words. " I'm not sure what he is, but I don't think he's supposed to be here. Those things were attacking him and I couldn't let them kill him."

Glimmer slowly uncurled and set the small creature down. Standing on it's own on little cat like paws it did not look any less strange to Rynthia. The creature looked around sniffing at Rynthia before slipping free of Glimmer's hold and hobbling over towards the trembling Talon.

"Oh dear his back legs still hurt... Charlotte come back..." Glimmer stated rising to her hooves and trotting after the small creature, though she froze as she saw the swarm of bugs all over Talon.

"Talon what... bugs... aren't you ..." Glimmer stammered.

"A knight has to protect a Princess..." Talon grumbled. " I can't let my fear stop me..."

"Wait I thought I was the knight?" Elusive asked with some indignation.

"There can be more than one Knight." Talon snapped.

"I am not sure of the uproar, on the board are there not four?" Rynthia asked.

"Wrong sort of knight " Elusive snorted.

"What's the Taipair doing?" Dawn asked curiously rolling over to lay on her belly before Talon watching the small creature.

"The what?" Elusive demanded.

"Him." Dawn points a claw at the little creature who suddenly opened it's mouth wide showing a distinct lack of teeth. A strong wind formed, pulling at them all as the suction started drawing everything towards the creatures wide open mouth.

The others yelped and panicked, though Dawn simply watched as the bugs swarming over Talon slowly started to turn to black mist and get sucked into the creatures mouth. In a few moments there were no more bugs covering Talon, though his gauntlets had also turned to mist and were vacuumed up by the small creature.

The beast closed it's mouth, licking its muzzle with a odd blue tongue and burped satisfied at the bugs it just ate.

"What is that thing?" Elusive demanded.

"Taipair. A dream eater, they're natives of the dream realm, they wander about eating bad dreams and unimportant ones that linger around past their time. It's why there's not a ton of random dreams lying about. I guess he tried to bite off more than he could chew with the monsters, but the bugs seemed right up his ally."

"While this might not be news to you, he ate your gauntlets too." Rynthia added as the Taipair moved back over to nuzzle against Glimmer.

"Seems you made a friend 3P." Dawn giggled. "That's good luck."

"It is fine, I'm not sure where the gauntlets came from. I did not have them when I came in, though I do recall they looked like my mothers war gauntlets." Talon muttered though he suddenly froze again looking at Dawn." How do you know so much about this creature?"

Dawn rolls her eyes. " Long story, not telling it again, lets go find Buggy before those things come back." Dawn stated rolling to her feet and pronking off.

"What happened to her?" Glimmer asked slipping the small creature up between her wings where it could rest it's hurt leg. " I don't ever think I've seen her serious."

" We'll let you know when we figure it out." Elusive sighed turning to follow after the orange Kirin.

====================================================

[ Two months ago, New Griffon Empire]

The cold wind blew across the cloudscape before her, sending clouds racing across the sky, save one.  
Starfall looked down from the cloud she was sitting on high above the Peregrine Aerie. This was the first and last city of Griffon kind left on Equss. Tirek had nearly wiped them out as a whole, if not for Regent Breezy and Regent Dusty's actions, there likely would be no more Griffons on Equss at all.

Starfall was still unsure how she felt about that.

Wind Razor was dead, very dead, Starfall made quite sure of that. Perhaps she had been a little excessive in separating the body into multiple parts, burning it and then burying the parts at the ends of Equss, but she had to make damn sure that bird was gone.

The issue was, she still did not like Griffons as a whole. Despite getting to know Dusty better since she became the Griffon equivalent of a Princess, Starfall still didn't like them and part of her had wished Tirek had succeeded. She hated that part of herself.

Jer'rahd and Luna both knew this and as such when ever something needed to be discussed with the Griffons, she and Peach Blossom were sent to deal with them.

Starfall would have told Jer'rahd where to stick it, if it was just him ordering her, but Luna and Celesta were in on it as well. The pair were also making Jer'rahd meet with the Seaponies. Seemed the sisters had gotten it in their head that old prejudices needed to be set aside from every one. Of course this all stemmed from Twilight and Luna trying to get Celestia to at least tolerate Changelings. Misery loved company it seemed. Still Celestia and Jer'rahd were both trying. Starfall couldn't refuse if those two were at least trying.

Still she hated being here. Jer'rahd and Luna were willing to watch her foals whenever their schedules allowed, though Starfall more often left them with Rainbow Dash and Big Mac. Despite her great-however many times it was now, Granddaughter's penchant for being lax and reckless, when it came to the foals. Only Jer'rahd was likely a more protective guardian.

Both Jer'rahd and Dash were willing to pull any strings or any favors they could get for the foals. Given that Jer'rahd was friends with Discord and Dash was friends with Pinkie Pie, this amounted to a lot. Hence, she knew her three were enjoying the slightly out of season Pinkie Pie fun faire in New Canterlot, while she was stuck in the new Griffonlands.

Starfall's ears perked as she heard heavy breathing. She looked around before dipping her head to poke through the cloud she was laying on. A small figure was straining his wings hard to fly up to her. She watched for a moment as he drew closer, lifting her head out of the cloud just as the small Hippogryph flew up above her cloud then crashed down atop of it panting heavily, his back hooves twitching a little as he clung to the cloud trying to catch his breath.

Starfall tilted her head looking out over the edge of her cloud. She had come up as high as she could to stay out of the way of any Griffons that might be flying around below her. Her altitude was such that the cold of the wind would have been a bit of a problem with out her Wonderbolts flight suit, and even then she had buffered her cloud like a walled keep so she would have shelter from the wind. The steep climb had been a work out for her, she couldn't imagine the seven year old Hippogryph managing this.

Yet here Talon was, clearly what ever he wanted was important.

Starfall sighed as Talon slowly regained his composure. She worked a small bowl out of cloud stuff and reached a hoof up tapping against a slightly higher cloud, getting a mini rainstorm from it. She filled the bowl with water before offering it to Talon who drank greedily from it.

"Don't gulp it down, you'll choke, drink it slow." Starfall said calmly her ears flattening."What are you doing up here Talon? Does your mom know you're here?"

"She knows, huff, I was seeking you. Wheeew... but I do not expect she knew you were this high up." Talon gasped ruffling the feathers about his head.

Starfall wasn't sure what to think about the cross breed foal. Let alone that he was a god. The dark blue furred foal had the back end of a equine with matching tail dotted with white feathers. He had large feathery white and soft blue griffon like wings and feathers and his front end came with the lion like paws and claws of a normal griffon. He had a pair of pony like ears poking up through a mane of white and blue feathers and a short slightly curved beak like a griffon.

On one hoof he was sort of adorable in the way most foals were, but on the other hoof he was part griffon. Really she shouldn't be having such a stupid internal debate with herself simply due to the fact he was part griffon. The ruffled head feathers however gave her a clue as to why Dawn called him Puffy.

"Why were you looking for me?"Starfall asked.

"I have .. questions..."Talon gasped.

Starfall rolled her eyes. She should have guessed. Talon was smarter than most adults she knew and he had a desire to know things that rivaled Twilight's. Unlike Twilight however there were very few books left in the Griffon Empire for him to read. Most of the funds went towards rebuilding basic infrastructure first. Lucky for him they were close enough to the Crystal Empire that getting books for him was relatively easy, and it had become even more so when Princess Twilight decided that she would use her own funds to put a Library in the new Peregrine Aerie.

Starfall briefly considered simply ignoring him, but he was still a foal, half griffon or not. Not to mention he came all the way up here to talk to her, a impressive trip in itself for any one, not just a seven year old.

"How did you find me?" Starfall asked.

"It was not hard, you always tend to take to the air as much as you can when you come and visit Peregrine. The rest was simply triangulating the location of the densest cloud cover, coupled with fronts that had not formed naturally..."He continued on for a moment before realizing that Starfall was simply staring at him in confusion. "Sorry, basically I looked for the cloud that wasn't moving as much..."

"It is also rather dangerous to come up this far, especially for the untrained."Starfall stated looking him over to see if he was suffering from any sort of flight strain, she shouldn't have worried, he was a godling after all.

"Which is one of the reasons I wished to speak with you. With how often you have come here lately I wonder if it is possible if you could help me with my flying ability." Talon asked.

Starfall tilted her head a little the other way. " Why not your mom and dad? Both of them are superb fliers or they wouldn't be in the Shadowbolts."

"Father knows how to fly as a Pegasus. Mother knows how to fly as a Griffon. Neither of them can figure out how to adapt the two to where it would aid me. My wings are a cross between a Griffons and a Ponies as is my flight form. There were never many Hippogryphs to begin with and now there are even less. Of those that remain I am the only one that can fly either due to injury or not having wings."

"So why me?" Starfall questioned.

"You are a legend in the air Mrs. Silvertail. If any one could help me improve my flight ability I would expect it to be you or Mrs. Dash. Though I regret I have met her only once." Talon stated flatly.

Starfall considered a moment looking back down at the ground far below. She probably could figure out how to help him fly better. She knew how Pegasi flew of course, and she had studied Griffon flight in order to better kill them. Heck she even knew how harpies and dragons flew and was in the process of studying Kirin and Linorm to aid Dawn when she was old enough. Talon wasn't an enemy, the Griffons themselves were no longer enemies. Why was she even hesitating on this? A foal had flown up here on his own with considerable effort to ask her directly. A feat of that nature was something she should take note of as a Wonderbolts talent spotter alone.

"Mrs. Silvertail, might I ask another question?" Talon asked trying to straighten his feathered mane with his fore claws with next to no success.

"Hmm sure go ahead."

"Why do you come up here every time you visit? You seem inclined to spend as little time around others as possible. I have seen you in New Canterlot and you do not flee like this so I do not think it is that you are anti social. It seems that it is more you are trying to avoid the Griffons themselves." Talon pondered.

Starfall perked her ears at that. She tried to be polite when she had to speak with some of them, but the foal was right, every chance she distanced herself from the Griffons as much as she could, going so far as to flat out not allow her own foals to come any where near this place. She had one of her first major fights with Peach about his coming here. Old memories and fears it seemed were not easily squashed.

"Exactly how much do you know about me Talon?" Starfall sighed figuring the best way to answer was a story.

"I have read several pulp fiction novels about your exploits, but as you have never been known to give a clear story of your adventures I assume that most are grossly exaggerated." Talon admitted.

"Some of them yeah. Okay most of them. Any way have you read the one by Kingsly?"

"Night flyer. That one was more of a horror suspense story, but yes."

"That's the closest one to the truth. Kingsly wrote about how my daughter and I were stalked and hunted over Equss by a monster that was willing to kill any one to get what it wanted, which was my death. The story told of how it collected grisly trophies of those it killed and when it killed some one new it went out to eliminate that creatures whole family." Starfall sighed. "He started that story by pointing out that it had already killed my husband and that was where it got the taste for me, killing my family until no one but myself and my daughter were left."

"And that was the most truthful?" Talon blinked in shock.

"Yes, although in truth it wasn't a monster in any physical sense of the word. Wind Razor was just a Griffon. A solider with a blood lust that was trained into her by the Griffon war machine when they were fighting Equestria during the War of the North. She killed my husband and brother, then my mother and father. After that my sister and her lover met their end by her as well. I joined the Guard and I fought Griffons for most of my military life because of her. Habits and fears like that are hard to get out of and old hatreds are even harder to shake. "

"So because of what she did, you have an aversion to Griffons as a whole?" Talon pondered. "Despite the fact that there are no Griffons living now that had anything to do with what went on in the past?"

"Pretty much. I know it doesn't seem to make sense, but that's how it is. I don't really want to deal with Griffons at all."

"No it makes sense. It is negative reinforcement built up over a long time and thus not likely to be easily resolved." Talon stated causing Starfall to stare at him and wonder if the Hippogryph was channeling Twilight. "So why are you here then if you want nothing to do with Griffon kind?"

"Because both my husband and my friends think it would be good for me to deal with Griffons off the battlefield. Despite how I feel about it I have to trust that they are right, because I know their vision isn't as colored as mine. I know they would do anything for me and that should be willing to do the same. It's that trust and loyalty to them that are the reason I'm here. I've got a job to do so I'll do it despite what I want."

"You seem alright with my mother, and she is full Griffon." Talon pointed out.

"Heh, ask her to tell you about what happened in her basic training, I took a lot out on her and the other Griffons in that group, I still do when I help Jer'rahd. But she stepped up and did well enough that when the Shadowbolts were formed she was one of the first I offered the training to. And she passed. She's part of the team so despite being a Griffon I trust her and Breezy. Everyone else here, not so much."

"So she proved herself to you and thus you do not dislike her as you do all the others..." Talon pondered. "It seems that trust went both ways when you offered her the position and she accepted. There is an underlying loyalty there between you two that ignores racial barriers. Though that still does not answer my first question. I am far more interested now than I was before with the knowledge that you trained my mother and father. "

Starfall rolled her eyes. "You didn't need to analyze it."

"My apologies it is something I tend to do more often than not. I have oft been accused of over thinking things."

Starfall wondered briefly if that was his problem, he thought too hard on how he was supposed to fly rather than just doing it. It was something to think of later.

"At the very least given that I am only half Griffon, perhaps working with me might be a step forward to overcoming your dislike of the species." Talon continued.

"You are trying rather hard to get me to do this."

"My apologies again Mrs. Silvertail, but you have yet to grant me an answer." Talon blinked. " I am simply trying to weigh things in my favor further."

Starfall smirked. It would be a while yet before her own foals needed flight training, maybe this would be a start, besides she likely already figured out his main issues. It was sure to be less boring than sitting on a cloud most of the time while she was here and Princess Celestia would probably consider it progress both politically, and for her own emotional state.

"Yeah sure. You came up here to find me I might as well." Starfall smirked.

==================================================

[Tamberlane current time.]

"He's got three minutes. Jer'rahd growled.

"I am very much aware of that, you needn't remind me every minute how much time he has left." Celestia snarled from where she sat atop one of the ruined rail cars.

"Fine. He's spent an hour and fifty seven minutes of the two hours you gave him being stupid." Jer'rahd snapped back.

Celestia didn't respond, instead her gaze lifted skyward and to a silvery orb slowly making it's way across the sky.

Jer'rahd followed her gaze and smiled." Seems like Sparkles alive then."

"Yes it seems that way, but it feels odd, like it's not her magic moving it." Celestia grumbled.

"Think it could be the interference of the shield?" Jer'rahd asked suddenly a bit more concerned.

"It's possible. I never really had full control of the moons abilities for the thousand years Luna was gone. I cannot tell for certain." Celestia admitted.

"There was nothing in Spike's book that said anything about Grogar being able to steal powers. Who else could be moving it? If he had killed her and raised her as a zombie under his control the power of the moon would leave and go to some one nearby that it considered worthy." Jer'rahd pondered. " At least according to what Sparkle and Luna have said.

"This is true. I suppose I should take it as a good sign then." Celestia admitted.

==================================================

[The Moon]

"BWWHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAAHA! IT IS DONE! THE MOON IS MINE!" Avianna screams out into the void.

Strands of aether gather in the air around the glass field where the book of Orbsah known as the Crystal Chronicle was buried. The wisps of energy flowing and forming above the book taking the shape of the mare who lived in the buried book. The energy became more solid forming into the shape of a light blue alicorn.

"Finally with all this power, I can destroy Equss and rebuild it as I see fit, with subjects who will only adore and worship me..." Avianna smiles wide looking up at the blue orb in the space far above her.

"Geez do you write your own lines? Cause if so you need to fire your script writer, I've read better lines out of a old beefcake action novel."

"What?!" The magically constructed form of Avaianna whirls scanning the moons surface. She did not have to look long before spotting the speaker. A dark red furred and black maned earth pony stallion was sitting on a rock nearby not even trying to hide. The stallions cutie mark was a trio of crossed cupids arrows, and he bore a number of scars over his slightly transparent form.

"Who dares?"Avianna's eyes narrow as the figure chuckled waving a black hoof in the air, one connected to a blackened leg.

"Forgot me already? Well I suppose the last time we met I wasn't exactly in any shape to challenge you or comment on your flank. I was almost dead if I recall. Besides Jer held your attention pretty well." The figure slipped off the rock cricking his neck as a zebra mare strides around the rock he had been sitting on glaring at him in annoyance.

["Do you really think taunting her is a good idea?"] the zebra mare asked.

"What's she gonna do, kill us again?" the stallion snorted.

"Who are you?" Avianna demanded rather confused. She could feel something here, but she was unsure of what it was. There should be nothing up here at all on this barren rock.

"Just a few impatient friends I called." another voice stated from the other side of her.

Avianna whipped her head to the side frowning as this figure she recognized. An old gray unicorn stallion with a long white beard and mane, wearing a ridiculous blue outfit covered in bells.

"Starswirl." Avianna snarled.

"Part of me any way. The part that's caretaker of this place." Starswirl sighed. " I understand that later in life I chose you to be my successor. At least from what young Twilight has told me of my exploits after my echo came to inhabit this spell. I felt you a bit ago when you first started gathering magic to yourself. Since the Element's of Harmony are busy at the moment I opted to deal with you myself, along with a number of others who have a connection with the Moon."

More figures start to appear from around various rocks or simply popping out of thin air around the alicorn.

A white Unicorn with a purple mane and a tall Kirin with black scales move up near the first two that appeared. The mare seemed rather high class and the Kirin seemed rather angry.

A solid black earth pony stallion with a mane, tail and eyes, the same color of his coat, with a blue flower as a cutie mark stared at her from another spot.

A light gray Pegasus with blond hair and a wild smirk on his face dressed in Guard armor, fluttered up to land on a rock and look down at her.

A bright pink unicorn with a mane and tail that was awash with more colors than a Rainbow appeared out of nowhere What looked like a cat wearing some sort of pastry and riding a rainbow was his cutie mark.

A dark blue Pegasus mare stood off to the far side of Avianna, her white mane and tail whipping in a unseen wind.

A tan earth pony with a dark blue mane and tail, that seemed to move and flow about her form like a magical aura one saw on the Princesses, stood near the blue Pegasus.

Behind them stretching as far as Avianna could see were countless others. Guards, monsters, normal ponies and other species. Every one of them staring directly at Avianna.

"What is this?" Avianna demanded.

"We were having one heck of a wedding after party when we got a message from tall, gray, and bearded here. And we figured why not, it's not a party until a bad guy gets thrashed." The gray Pegasus snarled.

Avianna growled her eyes narrowing as the energy crackled around her.

"You fools think you can beat me?! I am a god here?"

"No, you're just a ghost that hasn't had the sense to fully pass on yet" Starswirl stated, his eyes glowing softly. "And since you moved your consciousness from your book to my domain, you are fair game. You've pissed off a lot of creatures Avianna. And all of them want a crack at you."

"Indeed." boomed a loud voice that seemed to shake the moon itself. "I honestly thought I would have to wait much longer before you showed up some where where I could get my claws on you."

"I hope you don't mind. I invited a few others who I thought might want to be here." the red earth pony grinned even wider. " They don't exactly have the same connection to the moon and it's wielder that the rest of us do, but hey, the more the merrier right."

Avianna whipped her head glaring back at the sound of the booming voice, her eyes widening in terror as the mob of other creatures moved aside allowing a massive red dragon ,his scales flickering with spectral flames to advance towards her.

Trotting along side of the massive beast to his left was a battle scared Zebra stallion in full plate armor with only the helm removed, his blue eyes staring daggers at the alicorn.

To the other side of the Dragon was a equally large and imposing sky blue earth pony stallion with a black mane and tail streaked with red. His green eyes burned in anger as he stared at Avianna.

Astride his back was a gauzy fined Seapony whose mane floated around her like it was drifting in unseen ocean currents. Despite being exceedingly beautiful her face was contorted into a rage that made her look more like a monster than anything else.

Sitting atop the massive dragons head were another pair.

A black furred unicorn with odd insect like plates of armor covering her body , and flowing forest green hair rested on the dragons head, looking a little uncomfortable with her perch, though her attention was primarily focused on Avianna. Her gnarled horn glowed lightly as her bright green eyes stared at the alicorn.  
A black Kirin with glittering red scales around his joints rested next to her atop the dragons head. His gradually curved red horn emerging from a mass of his black mane. His green eyes glared down at her as he presented a fanged sneer towards the mare below him.

The Kirin atop the dragon narrows his eyes as the dragon stopped, his black mane fluttering in a unseen wind as he glares down at the spectral alicorn.

"Hello mother."snarled Sombra.

************

The page flips up to show an angry Discord with a sleepy Pinkie Pie draped over his back wearing a purple nightcap decorated with stars and moons.

Discord frowned glaring at the text scene above him."Why wasn't I invited to this party? I've got a lot of issues to work out with that mare too!"

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes hugging tighter to his back as she lightly nuzzled into his mane. Meanwhile Discord simply glared at the author.

"Cause you're not dead." Pinkie Pie commented ruffling Discord's mane idly with her nose hoof. "Can we go back to bed now?"

"Oh yeah." Discord admitted pulling the page back down to let the text continue.

********************************

It really didn't take long for the amount of ghosts milling about one very violent spot on the moon to attract notice.

Thankfully for most it was only Mirth that showed up, though the sliver and gold Griffoness was less than thrilled with what had transpired.

"You know I am rather ashamed of you all." Mirth crossed her arms, the massive Griffon staring down at the assembled mass of ghosts.

"Still worth it." Crystal chuckled as she nuzzled against Sombra, the pair of them no longer sitting on Forgescale's head.

"I mean Bonnie let you all wait around so you could have a big party for those two when they got married and what happens? You all keep the party going for years and then get in a big fight!" Mirth sighed throwing her claws in the air in exasperation. Some how the massive griffon had developed a blue beehive hairdo and was wearing a pink apron with a chicken on it while waving around a rolling pin like a 1950's sitcom mother.

The moon looked... well much the same, though the spiritual side of things was a bit of a wreck. Several thousand ghosts all lingering around a big crater with a prone and thoroughly thrashed alicorn body at the bottom of it.

"Seriously, Starswirl you aren't even here, you're just an echo... Hooper you're in the wrong era... again, and most of the rest of you should be heading on to your next life already." Mirth barked pointing at the gray Pegasus who feigned shock. "If Bonnie wasn't so busy with everything else that's going on she'd probably force all of you on your way to the next life, including those of you still hanging around for your friends."

Mirth's eyes narrow looking at the Zebra mare and the red earth pony stallion, both of who tried to whistle innocently. Another glare from the first Griffon at the black scaled Kirin and white unicorn mare added another set of innocent whistles to the mix.

"Really now miss Mirth the end result was quite cathartic for several of them, and I am this was something that was needed." Starswirl began before Mirth cut him off.

"Fine all of you go, get back to where you're supposed to be right now before Bonnie notices. Honestly she took up the role as a guide for the dead and she lets you all walk all over her... she's far too nice sometimes." Mirth sighed rolling her eyes and shooing the lot of them away from the crater before floating down into it with a small flap of her wings.

The great Griffon paused crouching down a little over the fallen alicorn and clicked her beak. She briefly glanced up from the bottom of the crater as the ghosts went back to their own places in the sky.  
Satisfied that they listened she lowered her head back to Avianna her beak stretching into a rather malicious grin.

"And here I thought collecting the souls of five of the books in one go was a boon I would never see repeated. Yet here's the newest book, separated from the protection Zachle provided you in book form all on your own. " Mirth sighed reaching down and picking up the limp form of the alicorn. "I'm glad Bonnie's busy, cause I hate her having to see this. But a soul like yours, you'll be in the reformation zone for a long time."

A portal into nothing opens behind the griffon and a flick of her wrist flings the alicorn into it. The mare barely having time to scream out before it snaps shut behind her.

The Griffoness sighed looking up to Equss far above, or below her, depending on perspective, and let the smile fall from her face. With all that was happening, none of them had had a chance to peek out into the real world for some time. Bonnie and the others had a lot to do with all the deaths brought about by Tirek and they were just now catching up. Add to that welcoming Troph and Grace back into their ranks and they didn't have time for much.

Now that Mirth had paused to take a look at the place they had all given their lives to protect, she noticed something. Something that shouldn't be there. Or more accurately, some ONE who shouldn't be there.

"It's gonna be a busy week." Mirth grins, with far less humor and far more menace than there should be for the source of the Element of Laughter .

===============================================

[Two years and six months after the defeat of Tirek.]

Luna glanced over to the sound of giggling foals, watching as both Rynthia and Dawn clamored over Jer'rahd as he lay in the grass of the court yard. She could hear a few of the patrolling guards talking about how soft their Guard Captain was after witnessing the scene.

She almost pitied them if Jer'rahd heard them talking. Knowing him, he likely did.

Her ears remained perked up as she kept an eye mostly on Dawn She had poured over memories and knowledge of the past from the Changelings for anything that might be similar to what she had seen. Unfortunately Chrysalis, or Crystal as most history books were starting to call her from the time before she was cursed, had never had access to the dream realm. The spells to control the sun and moon were created thousands of years after her initial ascension and were given to some one, who at the time, was a trusted friend of both Crystal and Starswirl. Twilight's discussion with Starswirl on the Moon had not added anything to her knowledge.

She had piggybacked into her daughters dreams a few times and seen much the same as she had before, a far too clear mask of who she was, one that was easily disrupted by Twilight's appearance in the same dreams, though nothing else seemed to change.

She and Twilight had determined however, that who ever had put up the glamour was trying to protect Dawn from others who might jump to conclusions, not hide Nocturne from being found out.

Despite her best efforts Jer'rahd had noticed her sudden aversion to their foal and she wasn't sure if he bought into her 'Changeling issues' story.

Still after all these months with no change Luna was inclined to believe that perhaps it really was nothing. Nocturne was not plotting revenge, she had simply reincarnated and her soul had returned as their actual daughter. That was oddly a comforting thought. A child who was spawned artificially between two ponies barely connected by anything other than duty. One that had no foal hood and needed to be destroyed, now had a second chance at being a foal with a pair of ponies who greatly loved each other.

It was that that made Luna suspect the Element of Magic as behind it. Still without any physical way to speak with the Element's of Harmony, that was little more than speculation.

Luna slowly rose to her hooves, finally deciding that she had spent too much time worrying about this.

She trotted over towards the trio. Jer'rahd slowly looks up as Luna lays down next to him, wincing as Dawn chews on his ear before tumbling off his head to the grass. Rynthia tottered over towards Luna falling over against her side letting out a light squee as she managed more than a few steps on her own without support.

Dawn hesitated a moment longer before bouncing off Jer'rahd's chest and half galloping half tumbleing over to crash against Luna's fore hooves. Luna looked down at the orange Kirin foal, the tiny half dragon looked up at her sitting back on her tail and rear legs reaching up with her foreclaws trying to grab at Luna's muzzle.

Jer'rahd raised a brow, though his ears flatten a little as his daughters left him to go over to their mother. If Luna didn't know better she would swear he was jealous. Oh wait, she did know better, and he was.

Luna lifted her hoof up poking the small Kirin on the nose, causing her to tumble back wards into the grass.

"Boop." Luna smiled as Dawn giggled like mad.


	13. Let it die

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
by TDR 

Let it Die 

"... So then I tried proposing in a hot air balloon but the weather pegasi screwed up the timing of a rain storm that day and not only did we get soaked, but like seven other couples had the same idea I did and once I found that out I had to find something else." Lyra ranted.

The group had entered what they assumed was some sort of massive castle. Countless rooms ran down seemingly endless hallways that went every where. The group had started by checking every room they came across for a way out only to find what seemed to be endless storerooms of random treasures or junk and of course, a series of undead monsters. There were far less of them than what Luna had expected. The monster rooms were more like cells for each odd undead thing they came across, but there were a number that were completely empty with no sign of who or what had been inside. There were also far more 'cells' than any other type of room they found. By the end of the first long hall they had stopped and only checked every few doors along or any of them that looked odd.

Despite the odds, some how Lyra had found the small box she had been looking for. They had to fight some sort of pony sized zombie frog monster, but by that point it was the fourth one like it they had met and the trick with it's tongue was no longer a surprise, or even an amusing bit of innuendo.

The box Lyra had been after contained a small engagement bracelet. Questions were asked and the secret love, that every one knew about any way, between Lyra and Bon Bon was revealed. It seemed Lyra had been looking for a perfect way to propose to Bon Bon, one that had never been done before. She had been telling the others about it as they continued to search for a way out.

Lyra had considered the old wedding ring in the champagne glass trick, that led to finding a glass big enough for the bracelet, though she had written it off because it was an old trick. She had asked Fluttershy to have a cute animal deliver it, Fluttershy was booked solid four weeks in advance for that. Every time she thought she had a new idea, Lyra found out that thousands of others had done it before her. She was getting frustrated.

"You know the possibility of successfully finding a completely original way to propose is approximately Three thousand seven hundred and fifty to one." Twilight listed getting a odd look from the others.

"Never tell me the odds." Growled Lyra.

"Seriously you did that in your head?" Octavia asked.

"What? Math is fun."Twilight protests as Luna rolls her eyes.

"Nerd..." Trixie muttered.

"Hey!" Twilight snapped.

"So Pri... I mean Luna... how did Jer'rahd propose to you? Maybe that might give me an idea."Lyra commented, cutting off any argument between twilight and Trixie.

"He beat me in chess." Luna said flatly with a small smirk.

"What?" Lyra asked, though the others were curious as well, except for Twilight.

"Oh please. You walked up to him told him you two were getting married and he said okay. " Twilight snorted. " And you did it that way just to annoy your sister."

"Given that we were already technically married under equestrian law for just how long we had been living together it mattered little to either of us." Luna huffed. "Granted the reason I did that to Tia was because she declared that law void simply to remove that complacency so that we would have to marry properly. Of course she fully expected him to propose to me, given how annoyed I was at her antics, I asked first."

"That's boring..." Lyra sighed.

"But you must admit, it is not likely something some one has done before. Proposed to some one you were already wed too, just to annoy ones sister after she changed a law you did not agree with." Octavia commented. " Decidedly unique."

"What about you Octavia are you married?" Lyra whimpered a bit.

"Have you received an invitation yet?" Octavia rolled her eyes.

"No."

"Then clearly I am not."

"But he proposed years ago." Lyra sighed.

"Indeed, though we have had a number of issues with our work. Given that it is only after Tirek attacked that Pontera has stopped touring. Still with all that is going on with the school's expansion into other countries, Jacob and I barely have the time to start planning."

"Yeah, now that was an awesome proposal too." Lyra muttered.

"I disagree... with part of it." Octavia muttered.

"Really how did Jacob propose? " Trixie asked. "Trevor loves Pontera so I am forced to know much about them as well, though Trixie does not know that name."

"Jacob is his real name. His stage name is, or was, Bloodmoon." Octavia stated turning a bit red with all the information she was sharing.

"Wait? Bloodmoon, as in, THE Bloodmoon? The self proclaimed alicorn of rock?"Luna asked raising a brow.

"Given that his brother Nico... or Blackhole Sun, is the self proclaimed alicorn of 'and roll', yes." Octavia rolled her eyes."It is quite stupid, but the fans seem to love it."

"Tia and I were going to investigate that when we first heard of them." Luna commented.

"Please don't, he'd likely have a heart attack if you or Princess Celestia showed up. It was one of his fears that they would draw attention with their clams. Neither of them are alicorns. Nico is a unicorn with rather potent illusion magic and Jacob is a pegasus. The pair of them could not find work as musicians at first until Nico came up with the insane plan of his. That gimmick along with Jacob's song writing skill made every one take notice of the little band called Pontera. I'm still not sure how Nico convinced Jacob to go along with it given how shy he is..."

"Mind you this is the same stallion that flirted with every female, no mater the age or species, while on stage." Lyra snorted at knowing the inside of this joke.

The others look back at Octavia who sighed.

"He is a different pony when he is out of his costume, a COMPLETELY, different pony. As Bloodmoon he is loud, boisterous and frankly an annoying musician. Outside of that he is completely different. For example he actually proposed to me twice. Once, on stage in front of thousands of fans, though thankfully he didn't use my full name, nor did he call me out..."

"I believe the actual line was. " And now to make all the groupies cry, Tavi babe, will you marry me? Lemmi know later though I'm busy now'. He then proceeded to launch into some loud and screamy song." Lyra giggled.

"Yes well not only did he apologize for that later, a lot, he proposed in a different way, he actually wrote a song and had the rest of the band play back ground for it while out of costume." Octavia smiled at the memory. "I think it took all his courage to do so as well because he normally cannot sing while out of costume. That proposal was rather sweet. It balanced out the idiotic one enough for me to accept."

"And yet again , that's two more pretty rare proposals." Twilight commented getting a grumble from Lyra.

The mint green mare looked to Trixie hopefully, though the blue mare simply shook her head.

"Trixie does not think she is ready for any sort of relationship. She has never been interested in mares and stallions still cause her... issues, to be around." the blue unicorn muttered.

Lyra nodded looking over at Twilight who had done her best to try to place Luna between her and the curious mare.

"Not a chance Sparkle." Luna snorted slowing suddenly and letting the purple mare walk in front of her out in the open.

"Oh ho, does Twilight Sparkle have some one she fancys then?" Trixie asked.

"Is it some sort of scandal perhaps?" Octavia asked. " I suppose the news that one of the Princesses was involved with some one would make headlines rather quickly."

"Well..." Twilight muttered her ears droop as Luna smirked.

"I truly forgot how many do not know of your relationship Twilight." Luna laughed.

"Cause we don't want every one to know." Twilight muttered.

"Yet it is not as if you do anything to hide it. The castle servants simply know better then to pass along rumors when some one might be watching. And the Guard really do not wish to annoy Jer'rahd." Luna stated.

"What do you mean annoy Jer'rahd?" Twilight frowned." Did he do something to threaten every one again?"

"While we are not stopping any of them from talking personally. Most think that Jer'rahd an I are working to keep your relationship quiet. One cannot easily keep secrets with Changelings about and nearly all the Guards fear their Guard Captain. So when it was let slip that he may have issue with that sort of talk then they assume so would I and thus keep them selves quiet."

"Who the heck thought that plan up." Twilight asked.

"Starfall and Peach Blossom if I am not mistaken." Luna admitted.

"Remind me to give them a raise." Twilight muttered.

"Frankly I don't rightly care whether any one knows or not and I am sure Jer'rahd is the same."

"Are you two going to continue to tease us with all this double talk or is the name of Princess Sparkle's lover ever going to be said?" Octavia huffs, not usually caring about rumors, but this was getting to her.

Twilight's ears flatten to her head. " FINE... it's Celestia..."

There was a collective gasp, one that included Luna for some reason.

"Seriously? Our two Princesses are knocking horseshoes?" Lyra gaped.

"That is quite the age gap there, though I suppose since you ascended that means little more than her having a great deal more experience." Octavia pondered.

"Trixie is simply surprised that Twilight Sparkle is in a relationship with something other than a book." Trixie smirked. " Though one would suppose a teacher student kink would still be high on her list."

"Tis the quiet ones you need to watch out for." Luna added watching as Twilight turned a deeper shade of red with each comment.

"Seriously..." Twilight growls flicking a wing towards Luna. "I get comments on kinks I may or may not have and no pony asked the master of disguise over here how that affects her bedroom games?"

Luna blinked her ears flattening as she felt six eyes narrow on her. She glared back at Twilight noting the mares grin. Tia had been teaching Twilight rather well in proper diplomacy and misdirection.

"There is little to tell in that department. Given my ability to turn into anything there are still only four forms which Jer'rahd wishes to have... relations with." Luna commented, turning a bit red herself.

"Only four? Let me guess is one of them Celestia? That way he gets both the sisters...?" Lyra asked Getting a sudden sharp bark of laughter from both Twilight and Luna. "What did I say?"

"Given Jer'rahd's hatred of my sister I am sure he would rather geld himself then consider the option." Luna smirked, though Twilight kept laughing. "No the only four forms he desires are, the one I wear now, how I looked before I became a Changeling. That was how I looked when he first saw me. The third is my Nightmare Moon look, though that's rare. His favorite however is how I looked as a pegasus before I ascended."

"Untold numbers of looks to choose from and he only likes four of them?" Lyra snorted."That pony has some insane focus."

"Some what romantic when you think of it however. All he seems to desire is you no matter which form you took before." Octavia pondered. "Still with as long as you two have been around and how long you likely will live, that seems to me as if it might get old. I do hope he is creative at least."

Trixie opted to stay out of the conversation and Twilight seemed ill by it. Luna considered it serving her right for starting this line of talks.

"He is some what lacking in imagination at times, but he is not against trying anything I suggest. " Luna grins wide showing fangs as she glanced to Twilight. "That said were you girls not already taken I would suggest finding a Kirin for yourself. Not only are they.. ahem, bigger, than a normal stallion , they have stamina for days, and Jer'rahd is easily twice that."

"Ugh I did not need to hear that." Twilight bemoans.

"And I do not need to hear you and my sisters trysts while in my courtyard, but thine volume is on par with the Royal Canterlot voice." Luna smirked wider like a cat with a caught mouse. "Perhaps you might shut your windows, or invest in a soundproofing spell?"

"GAAAAH!" Twilight wailed.

==============================================

[ Several months ago, just before Hearths Warming. Sweet Apple Acres.]

Rynthia trotted though the forest at the edge of the south orchard of Sweet Apple Acres, following a tall Zebra mare. To either side of her, were her brothers, Fox and Wolf.

Wolf was a lanky colt that never seemed to gain any weight no matter how much he ate, and according to Applejack if they hadn't gotten a small stipend from New Canterlot, he would have eaten them out of farm and field. His white fur was a little darker than his brothers, and his stripes a little grayer giving him a somewhat faded coloration all around. He kept his mane and tail long and loose, the stringy hair seeming like a rats nest most of the time as it mostly covered his blue eyes and fell down to his shoulders. Fluttershy joked she had lost a few of her combs trying to tame the mess. Despite being nine already he was still smaller than most foals in his classes. He interestingly had gotten a cutie mark already though. Not a very complex one, little more than a knife and a stick crossed on his flank, but he had developed it in the Coltscouts when he was going for a pocket knife badge. His talent seemed to involve wood work and he was able to whittle nearly anything with a great deal of skill, no small feat for any one without magic, or fingers.

On the other side of Rynthia was Fox. The other twin had outgrown his other half a few years ago and seemed to be taking more after his father than anything else. He was already nearly as tall as the zebra mare before them and had put on quite a bit of muscle by taking more and more tasks around the farm. While he had no cutie mark yet, no one in the school was willing to tease such a big colt for it, despite the fact he would never do anything. He seemed to take quite a bit after Big Mac, he didn't speak much and had a knack for farming. He had not grown any more stripes either since he was a foal and as such he looked more like a white pony with a few black markings on his back and legs than a proper Zebra. His mane was cut very short, the hair barely standing out on the back of his neck and head. His blue eyes hid an intelligence that his lack of words and massive frame disguised. Despite his longer legs he kept pace with his little sister, only speaking once at the start with an open offer to carry her if she got tired.

She and Dawn didn't often visit the farm except for around the holidays despite how close they were. Rynthia and Dawn both attended the same school as her brothers. It was the same one as Pip and the Lilys attended.

Of course due to the courtesy of her fathers position of Guard Captain there was also a Guard outpost at the edge of the school yard now too. While the post was supposed to be an advanced position in case anything came out of the Everfree, nearly every one knew the Guards posted there had standing orders to keep an eye on Rynthia, Dawn, the twins, and any one else related some how to the Kaisurs.

Ahead of them was Zecora. She was a tall mare with a sun like cutie mark. Recently she had let her hair grow out more and her black and white hair had grown nearly down to the ground. She currently had her hair pulled back in a loose bun and two large bundles of flowers rested on her back in a basket. 

The twins knew her as a family friend of the Apples, but Rynthia knew her as an Aunt some where along the way. Her father said she was related to Aunt Tia and she hadn't really questioned it. Zecora evidently came by earlier, specificly to see her... and to warm Applejack and Fluttershy that the Disaster Trio and Dawn would need help at the barn sometime soon.

Applejack and Fluttershy had both panicked at that and run off as Zecora agreed to take the twins along too.

As they reached the edge of the orchard a sudden boom from the other side of the farm made Rynthia wince as she fully expected Dawn to be in the middle of whatever that was.

There was very little snow on the ground, mostly patches in the shade that hadn't melted yet. The weather pegasi were gathering up all the snow clouds for a big white out on Hearths Warming Eve, so while it was cold it wasn't unbearably so.

Neither of her brothers seemed to be thrilled with the direction across the farm they were taking and Rynthia had a sinking suspicion as to why. She barely recalled having been out this way a few times in the past with her father, Jer'rahd, though she doubted they were going to visit his parents graves this time.

["Have you two visited out here very often?"] Zecora asked.

["Occasionally, usually on holidays when Uncle Jer'rahd heads out here."] Wolf responded in heavily accented Zebra. Fox nodded as well as Rynthia's ears perked up. She was taught Zebra along side Equestrian, though like her rhyming she got certain things in both languages jumbled up. Still she was better than Dawn, who had only learned the bad words and a few inappropriate comments and insults. Her father was equal parts proud and mortified at that, though her aunt Bleu thought it was hilarious.

["While I am glad you have come out here with me, really I only wished to speak with your sister."] Zecora added.

["And we wanted to get away from the farm as we could before it was time to clean up what ever the trio did this time.] Wolf stated as Fox nodded solomly.

The Disaster Trio of Butterscotch, Apple Blossom and Dandelion had taken up the mantle of the cutie mark crusaders after their favorite aunt and her friends and had caused no end of chaos trying to get their cutie marks. While the trio never managed to actually achieve a disaster rating as the original Cutie Mark Crusaders had, they had caused enough damage that every one kept a close eye on them.

Even now, despite all three of them having their cutie marks they were often at the center of some problem or another from trying to help some other pony get their cutie mark. Dawn and Rynthia were often their targets when visiting. While Rynthia didn't really care, Dawn was eager enough to encourage all sort of things, much to everyone's horror.

["They truly do take after Applebloom and her friends far to much. Perhaps we should have cleaned out the clubhouse before they found it and became the new Cutie mark crusaders."] Zecora sighed though she paused as they came within sight of a small wrought iron fence.

In recent years Jer'rahd and the Apples had made a concentrated effort to maintain the graveyard. New headstones were added and an iron fence was placed around it.

There was talk of expanding the Graveyard after Discovering that the Pie's were distant cousins of the Apple Family. Jer'rahd, Pinkie, and Applejack launched a full investigation, which mostly involved bugging Spike until he found a book that had the family tree in it, something which Jer'rahd quickly had several copies made of to prevent any sort of paradox in case the book didn't exist before hoof.

The information that was found in the book revealed something else of importance beyond where in the family tree the Apples and Pies were related.

It revealed the location of Ma Pelt's final resting place.

While exhuming her to move her to the Apple family plot was written off immediately it did lead them to her gravestone in a small plot of land at the edge of the Pie rock farm. And in doing so cemented the connection of the family's more solidly than the book did.

Right now however Rynthia's attention was mostly focused on the pair of graves they approached. The ones of parents she had never met. She was some what sad about that. To hear her father and mother talk of them they were the greatest pony and zebra to have lived. Aunt Celestia, Aunt Starfall, and Auntie Bleu had other choice things to say about them, but they all seemed to have great respect for them.

Rynthia wasn't sure how much was true and how much was respect for the dead, though she did note that when ever her real fathers name was brought up in her presence, Applebloom tended to look angry and often tried to change the subject immediately.

"I am not really sure from just what you show, how much of the Zebra language do you actually know?" Zecora asked softly looking down at Rynthia.

Rynthia blinked at that, not sure what to say though her eyes widened as her aunt seemed to effortlessly string together words into a rhyme that still made sense. She loved that.

"Umm I speak more Equestrian than Zebra, though does this have something to do with my Ma and... father... Dad... " Rynthia struggled.

"Pa" Fox offered.

Zecora chuckled. "I see you are still doing your best to rhyme, relax it is a learned skill that takes time."

"Well she's better at it than me." Wolf admits taking a seat on a patch of grass before the two graves.

Fox sat down next to him laying out a small blanket for Rynthia to sit on rather than the cold ground. Zecora surveys the area before sighing softly and lifting the flowers off her back in a soft glow of red magic before setting one on each of the graves.

The air around the adult Zebra shimmered as the black and white mare was replaced by a red and white one with a small red crystal horn poking out from her forehead, not unlike the tiny one Rynthia had.

Rynthia felt a flush of embarrassment recalling the first time she had seen her Aunt Zecora, or Sunshine as she was really called, like this. She had been so amazed that there was some one who looked like her that she had acted like a fool. It was something Dawn still found amusing given how calm Rynthia normally tried to be, to balance out her sisters antics.

Neither Fox nor Wolf seemed bothered by Zecora's change. Evidently every one on the farm knew and Zecora didn't bother to keep it as close as a secret as she did before, something about her father and a surprise trip to the Zebralands before his wedding.

"Your father bore the Element of Generosity, your mother Compassion,the pair were part of the Element's of Harmony." Zecora continued. "It is likely that their fame has become overblown, their true selves only a few left have know."

"You are going to tell us about our real parents? Isn't that something Momma or uncle Jer'rahd should do?" Wolf asked.

"Neither of them are willing to speak ill of the dead, and likely would put little more than their best times in your head. While I am related to all three of you, pointing out these two were our families black sheep is what I must do. While tales of the Gods War had increased their fame, in the war before that, many atrocities were done in their name." Zecora sighed.

"Why would you need to tell us this, is something they did still … wrong... incorrect." Rynthia grumbles.

"Amiss." Fox stated.

"The issues Applebloom has gone through, can easily be brought back to the fault of at least one of the two. Despite what those in the Zebralands have done, some of the fault can be placed on the other one."Zecora muttered.

Zecora shifted and settled down, beginning to tell the foals the tales of Rhede and Velkorn during the events of the Dragon Wars and everything else up until the point where they were sealed in stone. She told the trio of their actions once they had woken again and all the way up to their eventual ends. She down played their heroics by pointing out why they did them and up played some of their darker moments.

Zecora only spared them a few things here and there but the picture that was painted of their parents was not a pretty one. It was filled with blood, near genocide, infidelity, infanticide, and curses. By the end of it all three of the foals were at the very least teared up, though Wolf was clearly angry.

"If they did all that, killing foals, helping make monsters and turning on their own why were they let loose again? Why would the Elements of Harmony even choose them?" Wolf snapped." This has got to be lies."

"What I said has not been a lie, they were far from perfect when fate chose them to die."Zecora sighed.

"Why did you tell us this?" Fox demanded, the colt sounding much angrier than Zecora had heard him speak before, though given how he was rubbing the softly sobbing Rynthia's back she could understand why.

"As I said before this lesson was never meant for you two, it was not something I planned to put you through."

"Yes, because making our sister sit though the story alone is much better." Fox grumbled.

"There is a lesson, and a point here if you are willing to see. After everything I have told you and what you know , what might the lesson be?"

"They were …. they were still worthy of the Elements of Harmony... despite what they did. They did horrid things but they tried to atone... " Rynthia muttered.

Zecora's ears perk up and a small smirk crosses her muzzle. "Indeed Rynthia, correct you are, in your families reasoning abilities, you are setting the bar. Despite what they did and what they lived through, they represented Compassion and Generosity too. Their actions could be considered atrocious at times, horrific I'd guess, their morals seemed cloudy their judgments a mess. But your mother cared for all, no matter the price, and your father was giving whether or not he was actually nice. " Zecora looked back at the graves.

"In the end they both did their best to make up for their wrongs, I doubt either expected or wanted to be remembered in song. But that is what happens and how ponies cope, with the loss of ones loved they can only hope, that their friends might be remembered with warmth and good praise, and their misdeeds forgotten, behind all the praise."

Zecora slowly rises to her hooves.

"That is the lesson, unless you still object, they both became heroes, worthy of our respect. Their beginnings however you would do well to recall, and know there is potential to be anything inherent in all. Despite telling you this, a tail that seems tragic, think of how many loved them because their friendship is magic."

The three foals blink looking up at Zecora then to each other before all of them flatten their ears with confused looks on their faces.

"I have no idea what the point of this was." Wolf muttered.

=======================================

[Tamberlane, outside the shield]

"The moon's going back down." Jer'rahd commented.

"Well that didn't take long. I suppose she might be limited in power or trying to hide herself." Celestia commented as the moon dipped back down below the horizon. " We really need to come up with a solid way to inform each other that we are still alright in situations like this."

"We shouldn't HAVE situations like this." Jer'rahd growled. " Any way the bastards times up. You wanna knock this time and break another train car or do I just cut the bubble?"

" Go ahead, if we can break through this thing then we don't need to wait for a rescue. One of us can find the hostages and the other can find the bell."

"You can fly, you go for the bell it might be in a tower or something." Jer'rahd stated.

"Alright. But do not underestimate Grogar. Just kill him quickly." Celestia agreed as Jer'rahd readies the Waning Moon to slice the yellowy shield.

=========================================================

[ Inside the Shield on Tamberlane, a few minutes prior]

"Well at least it's not a store room." Twilight observes. " It looks like a amphitheater."

The room they entered was a massive bowl shape with a vaulted covered with images faded and chipped into obscurity. Rows and rows of half rotted and collapsed benches rested on stair like tiers sloping down towards the middle. At least three other floors of seating were above them on staggered balconies that ran around the whole room. In the very center was a raised circular stage of stone.

There were six obvious paths leading to doors at the back walls of the theater, one of which they had just come from all radiating out from the stage. The stage it self was littered with splintered wooden chairs and what looked to be ruined interments and Donkey and Equine skeletons.

"It looks as if there was a orchestra playing here. Something must have killed them quickly as several are still in their proper places." Octavia noted as the small group moved down towards the center of the room."I never liked this sort of stage."

"This is creepy. What the heck happened here. There's no other bones any where else , just on the stage." Lyra noted.

"Perhaps they died in practice?" Trixie suggested.

Luna and Twilight had not really been listening to the others. Both of them felt something off here and were watching the upper balconies expecting something to attack.

While they were not disappointed, they were wrong in the direction they looked.

Octavia was the first to see the spectral form rising up out of the center stage. She barely yelled out a warning before the others were moving. Lyra lept at it swinging her weapon at it, the boat hook slicing right through the specter with no resistance.

Other ghosts began to rise up in the concert hall from the stands, blocking the exits with their wispy forms. Luna lashed out at one with a hoof before yanking her hoof back with a yelp, her limb covered in ice crystals from the contact.

"Don't touch them. They're freezing."Luna snapped to the others as she tried to stomp the frost off her limb.

"Ghosts!" Trixie yelped.

"There's no such thing as ghosts." Twilight snapped back." Though these things put up a pretty good argument to the contrary. They are likely just echos..."

"Sparkle do not get into a discussion with Trixie about ghosts while we are surrounded by them..." Trixie snapped as she rushed in the circle around the stage before climbing onto it wary of the spirit in the middle as she looked at the stage floor. "No trap doors or exits for performers, what kind of stage is this!?"

"A political one most likely." Luna growled backing up towards the stage noting that there were more ghosts coming and even flying out without hitting one wasn't an option.

While the others were forced closer to the stage by the encroaching spirits, Octavia had yet to move from where she stood next to the circular dais. Her lavender eyes were locked on the first ghost to appear.

"Luna." Octavia muttered her ears flattening to her head. " I know who this one is..."

"What?" Luna asked looking back at the one in the center of the stage as she an the others were forced up onto the stage.

The ghostly figure was clearly a mare, she looked as she likely did in life. Lithe with a long mane and tail and very pretty features. Features that were marred by an obviously damaged spine which bent her back at an odd angle and great claw marks ripping through her chest and mid section as if she had been attacked by a great beast or dragon. Her fur was solid black with a high sheen of gloss to it like onyx and her long hair was pure silver. On her flank was a white octave cleft symbol cutie mark.

Luna's eyes widen at the sight of the ghost, who's own eyes snapped open to stare at the Changeling Queen, her eyes glowing blood red with hate.

"Oh shit... it's his ex." Luna yelped as the Ghost screams the sound echoing across the amphitheater and making everyone feel as if their bones were rattling. The spirit launches itself at Luna as she dove to the side, the ghost pony darting through the air and whirling back around for another attack as if she were a pegasus rather than a unicorn. Luna cursed barely managing to keep out of the ghosts reach though bits of ice and frost dot her wings and mane from the near misses.

"Well it seems she has a serious issue with you. Lady Regent of Dullahan... or was that Demon of Dullahan and Regent of Gallopa-whatever. Honestly it matters little now that I have found you again." Shouted a voice from one of the upper floors.

Luna spared a glance up as Grogar loomed over the railing looking down at the five trapped in the center of the room by the horde of ghosts. The vengeful spirit also looked up at Grogar and held it's place. In the air sparing glances at Luna.

"I call foul Grogar. Platinum reincarnated and that reincarnation is currently very much alive. There is no way this can be her." Luna snarled.

'Reincarnation?" Grogar scoffed. "That myth? Simply because some individuals claim to have seen themselves in their past life in their dreams they think that reincarnation is real. Death is the end of everything mare. And when you master death you have mastered everything. Everything that lives, dies, and once it is dead it is mine. The greatest of warriors, the most talented musicians, the most powerful spell casters. Once they pass the veil they are mine for eternity. Next thing you'll tell me is that gods are real too. "

Twilight and Luna both blink slowly then look at each other before looking back at Grogar.

"They're not?" Lyra questioned.

"Of course not. All it takes is a few cheap tricks and the idiot locals think you're a divine being. I had a tribe of somethings calling themselves Shadow Walkers worshiping me as a god for close to a thousand years. Stave off a couple of deaths and a disease here and there then make a new life form or two out of leftover seapony and dragon parts and all the sudden you're a deity. Honestly though that was quite entertaining thousand or so years, perhaps I should look into doing that again. "Grogar pondered. "In any event I am the closest thing to a god that exists. I control death and the only guide that life has are base impulses imprinted from repeated reproduction of a species and what is learned. There are some odd quirks here and there that grant some more power than others, but in the end only death remains. Unless you are one such as I who have mastered the finale of life..."

"Drones on a bit doesn't he?" Trixie muttered to Lyra who nodded.

"Oh sorry if I'm boring you. I had planed to keep you alive for a bit longer to study your oddities and in the musicians cases until I managed to get my lab set up again, but if this has gotten boring I can easily spice it up again!" Grogar snaps as the ghosts start to howl pushing closer and forcing the five onto the stage. Platinum's ghost remains above them glaring at Luna.

"Whats that no snarky comment? No quips or threats this time?" Grogar grinned.

"Why bother? You've yet to surrender, which means your end is already upon you. Clearly you have already met your destroyer as well, or else you wouldn't have mistakenly called me the Demon of Dullahan." Luna grinned. " there is only one stallion who goes by that title. And if he is here and you left him alone for any length of time, you dun goofed."

"Perhaps but that is a goof easily fixed, and it will not matter to you in the slightest. Given you will be dead."Grogar snorted, his eyes narrowing." Kill th..."

Grogar's order was cut off as a scream of pain filled the air. The sound of it was louder than even the scream from the ghost of Platinum, seeming to reverberate in the very air and setting every one on edge/ Dust drifted down from the ceiling, a section of the balcony collapsed on the far side of the room and the sound of tumbling rock filled the air long after the scream itself slowly subsided as the whole island seemed to shake.

Some of the ghosts looked startled as well, most of them flickered and some faded out for good.

Luna bared her fangs in a smirk again as the noise subsided, the expression on Grogar's face was one of shock and terror and Luna could taste his fear. For once the emotion was delicious.

"What did I say?" The mare snapped as Grogar glared down at her.

"Hold them, do not let them go any where!" Grogar ordered turning and rushing off as the Ghosts packed themselves tighter around the small group.

The front rows of the theater were caked in ice, the very air around them cold enough already for the group to see their breath.

"Guard Captain Kaisur?" Lyra asked.

"Oh yeah." Twilight agreed.

"I can't feel his presence very well, but I am certain it is him and my sister." Luna stated glaring up at Platinum.

"Any ideas on how to get out of this?" Trixie asked.

"Not with all these ghosts. If I had my magic perhaps, but we cannot touch them. And we cannot scrape these rings off without damaging ourselves." Luna grumbled. "Twilight?"

"Tirek doesn't believe gods exist nor does he believe in any sort of reincarnation. That puts him from I would say the dark ages, the thousands of years of blank history where there either were no gods, or the pre history age where the gods hid themselves away from the world. Given I don't recognize the architecture, nor his accent I can't place his origins any closer than that, nor can I see any use from this observation."

"So we're stuck?" Lyra sighed.

"Trixie is not a fan of being trapped..." Trixie muttered. "Nor the cold..."

A sudden cord from behind them had the four mares turn to look back at their fifth group member.

Octavia had cleared off one of the stools from the ancient band and pulled out her cello. She was in the process of tuning it and a number of the ghosts had focused their attention on her.

"Octavia what are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"All I can do at the moment." Octavia stated flatly playing a few more notes before adjusting the strings. Seemingly satisfied the musician stood up and drew the bow across her interment making an awful screeching sound that made every one, including the ghosts flatten their ears to their heads.

Snapping her bow up like a sword she pointed the tip into the air directly at the floating ghost of Platinum. The spirit seems confused as Octavia holds the position glaring at the ghost of the mare. Finally the ghosts eyes widen then narrow as her own ears flatten to her head her attention fully on the gray earth pony now.

"Accepted." Platinum stated her voice reverberating in the room." Terms?"

"You know the terms. You have enough musicians here to follow either of our leads. They will play back up for both of us to the best of their abilities. Winner take all of course." Octavia stated.

"Accepted, lose and you are mine." The ghost mare stated.

"Agreed. There are worse fates then to be stuck in a spectral orchestra." Octavia snapped back as the ghost dropped back into the middle of the stage vanishing from view.

"What the heck is going on?" Twilight asked as Luna stared at Octavia in shock.

"A musicians duel. In the past some times the only way to play a venue was to directly compete against others. While it was generally less violent than a normal duel the terms were often ridiculous so the practice fell out of favor." Luna shuddered. "Some ponies demanded others limbs, ears, that they gouge out their eyes. Become slaves, give up music or take their own life. Musicians would often do such things with out question as the loss of honor would mean they would never play again publicly if they refused. A discordant note and the gesture... How did you even?"

"I am a teacher of the most prestigious school of music ever to exist Queen Luna. I would be amiss if I did not know the history of my craft even the sordid bits most prefer to forget." Octavia stated.

"Awesome, win this and we're out. You got this Tavi!" Lyra cheered though her voice dropped off a little.  
"You can win right? I mean sure Platinum is considered one of the greatest but not THE greatest right...? Tavi?"

Octavia said didn't respond as she began checking over her instrument again waiting for Platinum's ghost to return.

=======================================================

[ Crystal Empire.]

"... and that completes my report sire." Pip stated his form still stiff and at attention. Scootaloo stood nearby, though while she was also standing at attention, she had a rather dark expression on her features as she stared down Shining Armor behind his desk.

To be honest the young mare was rather unnerving him with that look, but their report bore consideration. He himself hadn't been sleeping that well for the last few nights, though in truth after raising two foals, he was used to it.

After the fire in midtown, the pair had been summoned to him directly at the castle to give their report. While this technically skipped a number of channels and probably pissed off their superiors Shining respected merit more than rank and given Pip and Scootaloo's short stint in the guard and what they had done, he already ranked them above a number of their superiors. Kaisur's efforts to reform the Guard were only partially successful. There were still a number of brown nosers and idiots in positions of power. Particularly in the Crystal Guard, though he was working on that, just at a slower pace because, unlike Kaisur, he actually knew what tact was.

Still while this bore investigation there were few if any that could investigate issues in dreams. The two main ones were currently indisposed on that island. Any others would likely be in Neighlantis. It was rumored they had studied such things.

As for those who could investigate and do the leg work, most of his Guards were busy with the Northern Expedition or assisting the Griffons. The only ones available were right in front of him, which explained Scootaloo's glare as they were supposed to be on vacation.

"At ease already. Also Scootaloo don't give me that look, I'm neither on your fathers nor Luna's payroll. I know this is supposed to be your vacation, but I don't have any one else available to investigate. This might be nothing, or it might have something to do with the island appearing, but given all that we've been through I'm not willing to take the chance." Shining sighed as the glare got worse. "I'm letting you off the leash to investigate this, you'll answer to me or any one higher than me.. which in the Empire is just Cadence. I'd suggest avoiding pulling resources from the Guard as the officers will likely get surly being pulled from their own tasks. Try the Crystal Citadel first. Maybe this is something they noticed, or heck it could even be a side effect of something one of the students is working on. Worst case you can probably ask Berry for some magical support if you need it... Scootaloo... stop looking at me like that... Alright FINE. I'll try to arraign the pair of you to be put on outpost duty for a couple of weeks once this is over. That's the best I can do without Luna getting involved."

Scootaloo considered and nodded lightly much to Shining's relief.

"Now then I suppose we can start this by going to wake the foals up from their nap and see if they had any nightmares." Shining Armor sighed pushing himself up from his desk.

==============================================================

[Crystal Empire, Nap Time]

There was no screaming this time when they entered the dream, just a over bearing feeling of fear and dread. There were whimpering sobs and a dark voice muttering something just below the range of their hearing. This dream was dark and grotesque shapes and forms seemed to writhe around at the edges of their vision. When one turned to look there was nothing there but darkness, though looking in a different direction only showed new horrors at the edges of their sight.

None of the foals were comfortable with this place, and the tapir, Glimmer had named Charlotte, was trying to bury itself between the pink pony's wings.

Dawn slunk towards the whispering and sobs sniffing lightly at the air as she crawled along. The others followed closely behind.

The orange scaled Kirin stopped suddenly lowering down to her belly.

"Alright guys I think that's the big bad over there standing over Shin. We need to hit him hard and fast..." Dawn whispered.

"And how are we supposed to do that" Glimmer hissed.

"So long as you know you're in a dream you have control over that dream. Just imagine doing something that you can use as a weapon and try to form it like Puffyhead did with his gloves." Dawn explained.

"Gauntlets." Talon snorted. "Our powers also work here, though I think I am the only one with any sort of control of them."

"Talon you are the only one who knows their own power, I doubt Elusive and I can hope to gain one suddenly and light our darkest hour." Rynthia commented.

"Just focus on something to use as a weapon. Like Brainy's spear or something. We just need to rescue Shin." Dawn muttered.

The others looked at each other as Dawn seems to concentrate, her form growing larger and darker. Rynthia frowned as her sister seems to shift back into the dark alicorn that she had been before. Of course the alicorn suddenly developed a bright pink skin tight uniform that looked like the superhero Filli-second from one of Dawn's comics. Of course given that Filli-second is her sisters favorite comic, it made sense.

Elusive was the next one who caught on. He didn't grow any larger, but he was suddenly wearing armor and wielding a spear not too far different from the one he had on a wall in his room. Though this one appeared to be the real thing rather than just a training weapon. In fact it looked like the spear stuck in the ground on Gallopagos.

Rynthia looked over to Talon as he grew in size, whether from his imagination or his own power she was unsure, but his fore claws were covered with the gauntlets once more and his furred and feathered form covered with forest green armor.

Glimmer... Glimmer unnerved Rynthia a little. The mare suddenly burst into some odd elaborate dance number, sans music or flashing lights, but after a kaleidoscope effect and clothing magically forming on her body she stood on her back legs wearing a odd looking little blue miniskirt, a white leotard with boots on all four limbs. Her mane was done up into two small little buns with ridiculously long pony tails coming from each of them. She had a tiara on her head and some odd sort of wand with a crescent moon on it. Charlotte was also changed as now he was solid black, with cat ears and a silver crescent moon on his forehead, which the tapir promptly pulled off and ate.

"Sailor Sentai?" Talon asked.

"I love those stories..." Glimmer muttered as if ashamed.

"It might work. Though I shall warn you I will not dress up in a suit and throw flowers." Talon nodded getting a small sigh of relief from Glimmer as well as a bit of a pout to her lips.

Rynthia however seemed to be having trouble getting anything to form. She thought of her fathers sword, her Aunt's blade, the bone armor anything, but nothing appeared. The Zebra sighed noting the others had already started forward, while she was trying to figure out what to use.

Why was this so difficult for her? Was there nothing she favored? It couldn't be she was over thinking it, Talon and Elusive were the best at that. Even if she couldn't summon anything she couldn't let her friends fight alone, but she needed something to help.

The little red stripped zebra whipped her head trying to clear it of any thoughts. A soft jingling caught her attention as well as a unexpected weight on her chest.

Rynthia looked down rather surprised to see an odd silver and gold pendant dangling over her chest. She blinked and quickly took the jewelry off to get a better look at it. What was this?  
The pendant was richly carved and showed the old symbol of a scale like they had in court houses on it. It didn't appear to be silver, but highly polished steel, simple but still ornate.

Had she summoned it? She didn't know why, she couldn't think of any fictional heroes that wore jewelry like this, she wasn't fond of decoration herself.

Still the amulet seemed familiar, but she couldn't place why.

Shrugging she put it back on and started toward the others trying to sneak up on the monstrous Kirin. Maybe the amulet would help, but she couldn't do anything if she wasn't closer.

Rynthia may as well have not bothered. As she took a step forward all the others rushed him at once and were flung off the ground and into the air by a sudden blast of power from the gray creature. They hung in the air struggling and squirming being held aloft by nothing. Rynthia remained on the ground untouched by the magic as she seemed to have been too far back from the epicenter of it. She watched as costumes and gear burnt off her friends turning back into the dream stuff. Charlotte clung tightly to Glimmers back though the tapir seemed pinned between the pink pegicorns wings.

" This is the best?" the creature sneered, it's mouth unmoving. "I knew I would be found out sooner or later, but by foals? Truly you mortals are pathetic."

It's gaze swept over them as it pulled them all in close. One of it's eyes glowing red, the other glowing a bright green, it truly did resemble her father. If her father was a disgusting monster any way.

"A brat of a Princess, a pompous hippogryph, a foal with delusions of grandeur, and a nightmare reborn. You have such an array of fears , simple ..." he looks to Talon, " Complex," A glance to Shin who was still whimpering on the floor. " Common..." a glare at Dawn, " inane," A glance at Elusive. " Still that is quite the variety, I should keep you all around to feed me more... But time grows short and as easily as I stopped you here should provide more than enough of a meal as you consider your own uselessness."

The creature grind its mouth splitting up the side of it's face and running down it's equine like neck displaying more and more ragged predatory teeth as several more eyes popped out of it's torso to stare at the foals floating about them, covering it's body with softly glowing red and green orbs.

"But why make it that simple?"

The creature suddenly tossed Elusive away, the Kirin foal vanishing into nothing with a light pop. Dawn followed being tossed in another direction her alicorn form gone with the costume she wore. Talon was simply dropped and vanished. The monster pried Charlotte from Glimmer and tossed the pair in two different directions for them to vanish. Shin simply vanished from where he was huddled the creature barely sparing him a glance.

The monster sucked in a ragged breath of air, a long striped serpentine like tongue slipping from it's maw, licking it's lips from one shoulder all the way around to the other. It paused turning it's focus to the red and white Zebra foal before advancing on her.

"Well well, seems I missed one... Mmm another complex fear, layered too... ooh you are a treat."

"Wh... what are you...?" Rynthia stammered trying to muster the courage to get back to her hooves as the creature loomed over her.

"Really now sister. Don't you recognize your older brother?" The monster laughed again, the sound humorless and seeming to come from every where except the beast before her." Though I suppose you are adopted."

"You... you are neither Pip nor Brush..." Rhynthia stammered.

" Of course not, I'm much older than them. I was born long ago from your father and a seapony, aged in fear and grown in terror, I just now have the freedom I have craved since his wife is no longer in control of this world." The monster grinned wider, the smile going further into it's torso showing larger teeth where his ribs should have been.

" As for who I am? Father never decided to name me, blaming everything on a house guest who overstayed his welcome. So I named myself, would you like to know what I call myself little sister? Do you want to know the name Equss will scream when I finally gain the power to escape this place?"

The monster leaned down to mutter something to the terrified Zebra foal before rearing up, it's whole body splitting open with a terrible maw full of teeth and multiple tongues not unlike a Tazel worm. It laughed again the sound booming from every where but the creature.

=============================================================

[Crystal palace. End of nap time.]

Shining Armor pushed open the door to play room frowning as he noticed a few things.

One, it seemed all the foals were already awake.

Two, it seemed they were trying to build some sort of fort out of the beds and other furniture of the room. The lot of them stopped suddenly, staring at Shining as he looked in the door at them.

Shin suddenly pointed at Dawn from his perch atop one of the beds to where she stood pushing a toy box up to help reinforce their fort.

"She did it!" Shin quipped getting a glare from Dawn right before she scrambled up the side of the flipped bed and tackled the shrilly screaming Changeling onto the other side of the fort's wall. Elusive slapped his forehead with a hoof and both Talon and Glimmer rolled their eyes.

Shining rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hoof. Clearly they were fine and not only that, it seemed they had skipped their nap. Still he was impressed they had been quiet this long.

"Is Rynthia in here too?" Shining asked ignoring Shin's yelps and Dawn's overly loud mauling once the Changeling foal started giggling and the raspberry sounds started.

"She is sir... She's... reading..." Talon stated flatly.

"Shh alright. I'll have the maids bring some snacks up in a bit..."

"Thank you daddy." Glimmer chimes in as Shining closes the door.

The foals all held their positions in silence for a moment more before all of them scrambled behind the hastily built barricade.

"I still don't understand why we can't tell him?" Talon hissed. " That thing threw us all out of the dream like it was nothing."

"Because the moment we tell them we had a bad dream, they'll take away some of our treats cause that's what gave us the night mares or some of our stories... " Glimmer muttered. "They've done it before. Adults have weird ideas of what causes bad dreams."

"Plus if they found out we were using dream magic spells they might get mad too." Elusive added.

"You could blame it on me, I wouldn't get in trouble." Dawn grinned.

"Yeah except you can't use magic." Shin pointed out as Dawn pouted.

"I still want to know how you knew so much in there Dawn." Talon pointed out.

"I knew what in where?" Dawn asked.

"In the Dream you sounded like you knew what was going on." Elusive added.

"I did?"

"Yes, this isn't the time to be silly!"Glimmer snapped. " Charlotte is still stuck in there.

"Who?" Dawn blinked.

"The tapir!" Glimmer growled.

"What's a tapir?" Dawn asked.

"Is she serious?" Glimmer hissed.

"She did say she didn't recall her dreams, there is of course more to my sister than it... is... appears?"Rynthia commented looking up from the book she had buried herself into.

"Seems?" Elusive offers.

"Yes that."Rynthia sighed. " This book has nothing on that name , nor the necklace I had on. This makes no sense to me." Rynthia growls tossing the book aside and flopping onto her belly.

"Name? What name?" talon asked

"The creature told me it's name." Rynthia sighed.

"What's it called then?" Dawn asked.

"It calls itself Tantabus." Rynthia explained. 


	14. Nightmare Night Special 3, Thriller

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Nightmare Night Special  
Thriller 

The odd time displaced theater was packed. Countless ponies and other creatures milled around the benches and aisles, speaking with each other in low mummers or varied shrieks as some of the still living met the dead ones. The curtain was down on the massive stage and as usual Pinkie Pie and Discord were bouncing around directing traffic and shouting at those on the other side of the stage curtain trying to get everything in some sort of order. The only difference this time was that a large golden furred Griffon was accompanying them. Jer'rahd rightly assumed it was the First Griffon, Mirth.

For once however, the Kaisur family was in the audience, not back stage. Jer'rahd smirked at that happy to enjoy watching one of these 4th wall destroying events for once rather than be stuck in it. It seemed however that nearly every one he knew was on this side of the curtain.

He, Luna, Dawn, and Rynthia sat next to Peach Blossom and Starfall. Bleu and Spike were behind them and Celestia, Elusive and Twilight were on the other side, with Cadence, Shining, Shin and Glimmer next to them.

Pip and Scootaloo had chosen to sit far away from Luna, as had Hunter and Orange and Brush and Diamond Tiara. Clearly they wanted to keep away from Luna's death glare, or in Hunter's case, Jer'rahd.

Most of the audience was in costume, and his group was no exception. Some how Luna had managed to convince every one to get costumes from a game she had been playing a lot of lately. Jer'rahd still wasn't much of a fan of the games Luna and his foals liked, but he was content with letting them enjoy the technological advances.

Starfall had dyed her mane gray and was wearing some sort of blue uniform with a bit of chest armor. A tattered cloak covered her back with a hood that hid most of her head save her face and a few wisps of her mane. She had an eye patch over her left eye and carried around something that looked like long crossbow, though Luna and Dawn had called it a sniper rifle.

Peach Blossom was dressed like he just came out of Appleloosa, a wide brimmed hat and a red poncho over a metal breastplate. He had on some odd pants, spurs and a belt with a large buckle that said 'BAMF' whatever that meant. His left front foreleg was made up to look like it was made of metal and he had a large weapon on his hip that Luna had called a 'big iron'.

Their two foals weren't dressed up in the same group costume as every one else. Starlight was dressed as a bunny in a mini Guard uniform, and Orchid was dressed as a fox. Jer'rahd wasn't too sure what the foals were supposed to be , but they looked cute enough.

Rainbow Dash was on the other side of Starfall and was dressed in a blue armored suit with a cannon like device on her foreleg. Her wings were also encased in the odd armor and despite being pregnant again, she seemed rather excited to be wearing the costume. Evidently she was one of Luna's teammates in the game.

Big Mac sat next to her with their first foal, Zap, sitting on his head so he could see the stage. Big mac was dressed in a some sort of Japony looking attire and his mane had been dyed black pulled back in a top knot and dyed black. Like Peach Blossom, he had grown a beard for the costume, though his only accessory seemed to be a ornate bow. One of his forelegs was bare and covered in designs inked into the fur that looked like an angry Seamore, or Steven magnet what ever the dragon was calling himself these days.

Zap was dressed like a fox as well, though one with much bigger ears that was wearing a elephant suit, probably from the same thing as Starfall's foals were.

Twilight's costume was a little odd and Jer'rahd honestly wouldn't mind seeing Luna in something similar. The lavender mare was wearing a skin tight suit with a odd mask that had eight glowing red eyes on it. Her mane and tail were dyed black and she also carried one of those sniper rifle things like Starfall did.

Celestia wore some sort of face visor thing with some sort of wing horn things that poked up over her ears and a blue dress that didn't do much to cover her legs. Her mane and tail were also black and she had an odd three pronged crossbow looking weapon. Her left foreleg was also done up in some sort of prosthetic looking armor and the rest of her limbs were covered in black leggings.

Elusive was a far cry from his mothers. His outfit looked cobbled together from junk. His mane was spiked up the ends of it looked like they were sizzling. One of his rear legs was done up to look like a metallic peg leg as was one of his forelegs. He had some sort of ball launcher and a giant spiked wheel on his back.

Shining Armor was wearing a black hooded cloak with a skull mask. He was also wearing a loth of leather and a big cloak . His two weapons were sort of bolt thrower things and evidently the inside of his cloak was laced with dozens them.

Cadence was floating in mid air, mostly nude and covered in metallic body paint. She sat in some yoga pose or another with a bunch of metal balls floating around her in her magic, she also had a bunch of dots on her forehead around her horn and her mane was slicked back to the point that it was hard to tell if she even had any hair. .

Shin... Jer'rahd had no idea what Shin was supposed to be, he looked like some sort of little robot thing with a bird on his shoulder.

Glimmer was wearing an orange jump suit with goggles and some blue glowy chest piece. He couldn't get a good look as she was hiding behind Shining to keep out of his sight.

Jer'rahd was used to that by now, though it still upset him. He was impressed with Bleu and Spike's costumes more than any others.

Bleu had dyed her head spikes bright pink and wore some sort of bulky body armor with a equally big cannon looking thing that looked like she ripped it off a ship.

Spike carried a massive war hammer and was armored head to claw in what looked like super thick steel plate armor. It was a little more decorative than Jer'rahd liked, but it was the most impressive out of everyone he thought.

Fluttershy had put on a massively bushy bead and an eye patch. She had a back pack with smoke stacks coming out that hid her wings and one of her forelegs was some sort of giant claw. She had a much smaller hammer than Spike and was sitting next to angel Bunny who looked like he was some sort of cannon robot.

Applejack was dressed like a ninja robot thing with a green sword over her back. Jer'rahd probably wouldn't have recognized her in the odd form fitting armor and mask if she hadn't also been wearing her usual hat atop it all.

The disaster Trio of Butterscotch, AppleBlossom, and Buttercup were dressed as turtle with different colored bandana's over their eyes and various ninja weapons. Wolf was dressed as another of the turtles with a purple mask, and Fox had on a bathrobe and was dressed like a rat.

Like everyone else he had no idea what they were supposed to be.

Jer'rahd himself was also wearing a face mask with a red visor. His mane and tail were dyed white and he was put in a blue jacket with a 76 printed on the back. He had some sort of prop 'rifle' thing as well to go along with it. Oddly he rather liked the jacket but he could have done without the rest.

Luna was dressed like some sort of angel, with a halo and everything, her wings were changed to be white feathered and glowy yellow and her costume was deliciously tight in ,Jer'rahd's opinion any way, he wasn't sure how to take her being a blond however.

Rynthia was bundled up in a snow pony parka with a little squirt gun looking thing and a cylinder of something on her back, probably her collected candy.

Dawn was dressed in a pink and blue body suit with robotic bunny ears. She had a larger pink painted cardboard box with 'meka' written on the side, though that sat on the floor before them as it was a pain to carry. The little Kirin was currently stuffing her face with a bag of cheese triangles she had gotten from her earlier candy gathering.

Talon had joined in the chaos and was dressed in some sort of armored suit with a gorilla mask that had a pair of glasses on its nose.

Breezy had pulled his mane into some sort of topknot and had been trying to zip around on some sort of ice skates most of the night. He had a massive pair of headphones on his head and a 'gun' that seemed more like a speaker on a handle. He also kept talking about his mix tape whatever that was. It amused Luna though he was another one on her games team.

Dusty had dressed up as a demon version of the same costume Luna wore, the two had been glaring at each other all night because of that.

Of course taking the foals around to collect candy before this show had done wonders for tiring all of them, save Dawn, out. Of course Dawn and Rynthia had tried to quadruple their stash by offering to bring the 'Nightmare Moon tribute' candy directly too her. Granted their plan was then to conveniently 'forget' to give their mother the huge pile of candy and horde it themselves.

Unfortunately for them, Luna had been making the rounds as Nightmare Moon and had swooped in snatching up both of her daughters as well as the candy tributed from the alter and flying off with it cackling as the girls screamed out in panic. This had started a small panic riot from the other foals who were in the group with them. It had taken Jer'rahd and the other parents quite a while to calm them down It was mostly the other parents however as Jer'rahd couldn't stop laughing at Dawn and Rynthia's expressions when they were scooped up to help much.

Right now Rynthia and most of the others were barely staying awake. This 4th wall show was the last event of the night before they were to all be put to bed and he and Luna could figure out what to do with the several tons of candy that had been left in tribute to Nightmare Moon. Last year they had donated what they could gather to foals hospitals and orphanages across Equestria. Over the last few years they had gotten better at collecting the candy with the help of the Changelings and Nightmare Moon was fast becoming the fall's version of Santa Hooves to some foals.

Jer'rahd wasn't sure what the show was this year, but he knew Rhede and Velkorn were at the forefront of it. He really hoped it wasn't a musical. He had no desire to experience true terror this Nightmare Night.

=============================================================

Jer'rahd blinked as the audience grew quiet at the sound of a creaking door and hoof steps. The lights dim as a wolf repeatedly howled in the distance. A film started playing the light projecting on the curtains showing a foggy cloudy night. The clouds part showing the full moon in the sky. The scene pans down to show Velkorn in a simple spotted dress and Rhede in a bright red jacket.

The two seemed to be talking about something, though as the moonbeam struck Rhede he doubled over in pain with a loud cry. The fur around his head seemed to writhe as small vines and leaves began to form. The jacket shredded as bark pushed out of his skin, his mouth opened as she gasped in pain, showing rapidly growing fangs. His hooves were enveloped in the vines that turned into claw like appendages.

His eyes snap open slit like a cats and glowing gold.

Velkorn screamed as the weretimberwolf roared and lunged at the Zebra mare.

The curtain swiftly rose showing a movie theater seating with a number of ponies Jer'rahd recognized as members of the old 42nd. Velkorn was cringing and pressing into Rhede's side as the screams continued.

Rhede however was happily watching the film and munching popcorn with a wide smirk on his face.

Velkorn seemed to have enough and she rises and leaves the theater with Rhede tossing the Popcorn bucket aside and following after her. The scene changes to Velkorn storming off outside of the theater with Rhede following her.

====================================

Starfall, Bleu, Luna, and Jer'rahd all wince as music starts playing and Rhede started dancing a little to the music as he moved around Velkorn.

"Luna..." Bleu whimpers.

"Already on it, I've got a potent enough silence spell to block out the whole stage..." Luna muttered her horn already glowing. Starfall had quickly covered her foals ears with her wings and hooves just in case Luna wasn't fast enough.

" Nope!" A great golden Griffoness stated popping into existence in the the air above Luna. She taps Luna's horn with a claw disrupting the spell. She was swiftly tackled by Jer'rahd and yanked down to the seats with them.

"Seriously! Mirth? This will be torture!" Jer'rahd panicked." I refuse to subject foals to Rhede's singing voice! I denied the Blackhoof from using it to get information because it was too cruel."

" Calm down. Rhede's only lip syncing, Munificence is on vocals for him." The Element of Laughter placated, noting the death glares from the four remaining Beasts of the Moon, plus Twilight and Celestia." This is supposed to be fun, not something that will traumatize every one for years. Just calm down, it's all good."

"It better be..." Luna muttered. " We are trying to make sure Rynthia has positive reactions to her father and mothers memories. Not screaming fear."

" Yes well I better get back before..." Mirth yelps as Jer'rahd yanks her back down into the seat with them. Dawn climbs on top of her father's head glaring at the First Griffon God.

"No, you're going to hang around a bit more, just in case he does sing and this is your idea of a joke." Jer'rahd growled." We won't suffer alone."

"Ummmm." Mirth weakly chuckled.

===================================

The beat continues in the back ground as Rhede catches up to Velkorn.

"It's only a movie." Rhede chuckled following after Velkorn.

"I don't care what you say honey, this is not funny." Velkorn snapped.

"You were scared weren't you?" Rhede chuckles.

"While I might have been unprepared I can say I wasn't 'that' scared." Velkorn sighed.

Rhede chuckled as Velkorn walked off again." Yeah, you were scared."

The pair of them move down an ally and the scene slowly changes behind them as they walk.

As they are walking Rhede starts to sing to the music and the whole audience visibly relaxes as it's quite clear that it is not Rhede singing.

 _"It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark."  
_  
Rhede grinned, making a face at Velkorn trying to get her to smile.

 _"Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart  
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it..."_

Rhede grabs his throat with his hooves as if he's choking himself and nearly falling over backwards, making Velkorn smirk a little.

" _You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,  
You're paralyzed."_

Rhede froze in place on two hooves nearly falling over again and finally gets a small laugh from the Zebra though she walks on.

He catches up quickly and the pair of them start walking past the Apple Family Graveyard, their hooves clicking onto the stage in time to the music, the scene behind them effortlessly changes, likely due to Discord's magic, or really skilled stage hooves.

" _You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run  
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun  
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination  
But all the while you hear the creature creepin'up behind  
You're out of time."_

Velkorn finally seems at least calm as she smiles and the pair practically cantering along.

Rhede and Velkorn head off stage as the lights come up on the graveyard.

A bit of dirt starts to get displaced from in front of a grave and a hoof pushes up through the dirt. The creak of wood and stone can be heard as a stone tomb door slowly opens, a sarcophagus bucks and is pushed aside as another hoof emerges from the slight opening, pushing the stone lid off further.

Figures begin to shamble out of the graves moving from out of the graveyard and into the street. A goat like figure stands atop one of the monuments the lights flickering a bit behind him showing flashes of a figure. As the lights came up it showed a grayish blue furred creature that appeared to be an emaciated Ram. A pair of black gnarled horns rose from his temples, the pair of them faintly glowing sickly yellow with splotches of shadowy gray floating around in the colored mix. Prominent white eyebrows rested over his eyes in a way that seemed to give him a permanent scowl. Like his horns his hooves were jet black and in need of a trim. There were small sections around his joints and cloven hooves that were devoid of hair, though they seemed to have small patches of scales, like a fish or a snake, that were a inky blue black. He wore a red collar studded with gold disks and spikes with a small silver bell hanging from it over his chest.

Grogar started speaking, his tone carrying a weight of menace and no small bit of odd fitting pride.

 _"The foulest stench is in the air  
The funk of forty thousand years"_

More zombies crawl out of the ground.

 _"And grizzly ghouls from every tomb  
Are closing in to seal your doom"_

One of the undead shoves a sewer cover aside climbing up out of the hole in the street.

" _And though you fight to stay alive  
Your body starts to shiver"_

A few of the ghouls advance, one of them tumbling to the stage as it's leg falls off, clearly that wasn't make up.

" _For no mere mortal can resist  
The evil of the thriller..."_

The spotlight turns to focus back on Velkorn and Rhede. The pair have both frozen in the middle of the street as a group of figures move out of the graveyard to surround them. The shuffling figures were mostly dressed in finery, though much of it was soiled in dirt and half rotted off them. Some of the figures were near skeletal, clearly actually dead, while others seemed to just be covered in makeup to make them look dead. Jer'rahd recognized Lyra and Bon Bon as well as Octavia and Trixie though he was unsure of the rest. Trixie seemed right at home on the stage, yet she was some how overacting being a shuffling corpse. Jer'rahd suspected Grogar had something to do with the truly dead zombies on stage and hoped Discord and Mirth had a tight hold of his leash.

He heard several gasps from nearby one from Dawn who was still on his head and one from Rynthia who had backed up to sit against Luna. Well the show was hitting its intended audience well enough.

As the undead closed in on Rhede and Velkorn, the stage shifting to spin around them as they went back to back, the lights dimming on everyone but Velkorn. Rhede seemed to vanish for a moment in the near total darkness. Velkorn seemed to notice he wasn't against her back either and she turned to look for him as the stage lights come up again. The focus of the spot lights was now soly on Rhede as the music hit a sudden fanfare. The Red stallion now looked just as dead as the rest of the figures on stage, his mane was mussed up and dark circles surrounded his eyes giving him the look of sunken eye sockets. His jacket and red fur were stained in dirt and his face seemed hollowed as his wide eyes stared back at Velkorn as she backed away from him.

The music started again and Rhede begins to dance. The other monsters behind him also start dancing and mimicking his movements perfectly as he shuffles around in time to the beat rearing up on his hind legs to throw his hooves in the air..

All of the zombies suddenly whip back around staring at the audience, one of their heads rolling off to the floor in the process. Rhede turns back around from a spin and seems normal again as he continues singing.

 _"Cause this is thriller, thriller night  
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike."_

They all continue with impressive choreography, a few of them even lending their own voices, surprisingly in tune voices with the chorus.

 _"You know it's thriller, thriller night  
You're fighting for your life inside a killer... thriller... "_

Velkorn runs off with the zombie horde in slow pursuit. She turned running up the steps of an old manor house, shoving her way inside and slamming the door behind her, quickly bolting and locking it. The house was a massive thing, with one wall open so the audience could see what was going on inside. Velkorn darted through the house to a central living area. The place was covered in dust and most of the furniture was hidden under sheets with all the windows boarded up.

Jer'rahd was willing to call bullshit. Velkorn could have wiped the floor with those things, but then again this was a play...

The horde slowly followed after her, surrounding the house, Rhede no where to be seen.

Velkorn shoved a chair before the door backing away from it only for a zombies hoof to burst through the wall and make a grab at her. She shrieked, pulling away to another wall only for another foreleg to smash through that making a grab at her as well. The floor boards shatter as another creature rises up through them shrugging off the splintered wood. The windows and walls were rapidly reduced to rubble as the Zebra mare backed up into a corner shrieking as the zombies closed in.

Rhede himself bursts through the door, back in his zombie make up. He flings the chair aside as he and the others all close in on Velkorn.

The stage quickly blacks out as she screams out with a high pitched whine of music.

Suddenly everything goes silent save her scream and the lights come back on with her sitting in a chair in the theater lobby with a normal Rhede standing over her shaking lightly to wake her back up.

"Hey? What's the problem?" Rhede asked half concerned half amused. "Come on, lets get home."

He helped Velkorn up and slips his black leg over her shoulder as she presses against her side trying to shake off the dream. As they head towards the door the music picks up again suddenly and Rhede slowly turned to look out to the crowd, his eyes slitted like a cats and glowing yellow.

Grogar took that moment to start cackling like a mad stallion, his laughter echoing across the whole theater as the lights slowly start to dim once again the curtain falling.

The crowd was silent for a few moments though the silence was broken by one very loud voice.  
A loud voice that was still seated on top of his head and was yelling at the top of her lungs with almost the power of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"AGAIN!"Dawn bellowed.

The applause happened quickly after that, though there was still a little bit of crying and whimpering , mostly from some smaller foals... and the flower trio... Rynthia hadn't let go of Luna yet and didn't seem likely to do so any time soon. Jer'rahd took note that Mirth had vanished, though that wasn't unexpected.

The gray unicorn smirked a little as he rolled his eyes lifting Dawn off his head with his magic before the giggling foal could scream out again.

"Heh... way to go Rhede, first time your daughter sees you and you manage to terrify her." Jer'rahd grumbled.


	15. Explosion

Stories in Stone  
Capricorn's Curse  
By TDR 

Explosion 

[ Tamberlane.]

"What the buck did you do idiot!?" Celestia shouted.

"What the buck do you mean, what the buck did I do, you saw what the buck I did. I cut the bucking shield, I didn't make a bucking earthquake!"Jer'rahd snapped back, his hooves spreading out as the ground under him quaked and the very air around them seemed to roar in pain.

Celestia was hovering a pony length off the ground looking down with some amusement at Jer'rahd's attempt to remain standing before the island started to calm, the noise subsiding.

"This is guard Captain Kaisur, all units report in." Jer'rahd demanded into the com unit in his ear, before turning to Celestia. "The shield healed up too quickly, we can't get in that way. I also don't want to risk accidentally ringing the bell with another earthquake. But I bet we have Grogar's full attention now."

"Gallopagos reporting in. We've got a minor tidal wave incoming, but it's already breaking on the reefs, No damage expected." The com chirped.

"Mainland Royal Guard reporting. No sign of any tidal waves, it likely dissipated before getting this far."

" Neighlantis Guard reporting in. Confirming a swell from the island. Maintaining ordered position, negligible reef damage.

"Green two reporting. The chicken has been bloodied and has fled, Fox still in pursuit. Collateral damage still within acceptable limits, no Causalities."

"Jupiter reporting in, we can see the swell radiating from the island. Looks like a pebble in a still pond, We note several buildings have collapsed on the island as well. Some kind of Earthquake?"

"Affirmative Jupiter." Jer'rahd responded before considering a moment." Neighlantis Guard do you feel secure enough to go scout the under side of the island?"

"Yes sir. We've a few dolphins ready to go. Anything we should be looking for?"

"How far down the shield goes and how secure the island is to the bedrock. It moved quite a bit during that quake. I'm pretty sure we have Grogar's full attention now so a quick peek might be feasible without alerting him."

"Yes sir, will report findings. ETA one hour tops.

"Understood, don't take any unnecessary risks."

"Yes sir."

"Well?" Celestia asked.

"I told you I could get you a com crystal so you could listen in, but noooo." Jer'rahd rolled his eyes.

"You were giving me the model from several years ago, those things are massive, brittle and leave a crick in your neck if they don't rip your ear off fully." Celestia growled.

" Whine whine whine...Agent Sweetie Drops encountered Bray, but he escaped, there was a minor tidal wave from the earthquake and some of the Sea Ponies are going to scout under the island to see how deep the shield goes." Jer'rahd stated.

"See how hard was that?"

"Very... " Jer'rahd looked up at the shield seeing part of it turn clear again and the form of Grogar rapidly approaching." Look alive."

"As opposed to looking dead?" Celestia asked.

Jer'rahd ignored her watching as Grogar slowed his advance, though an expression of anger was clear on his face as he looked over the shield before his attention focused on the pair of them.

"What did you fools do!?" the Capricorn screamed.

"Want me to do it again?" Jer'rahd smirked.

"NO! " Grogar shouted in a panic before quickly regaining his composure." I've dealt with the issues in here so I can now focus soly on you two."

"I take that means you do not plan to surrender?" Celestia asked.

"What is it with you ponies and asking that? I hold all the cards to this little game you seem to think we are playing and yet you still bluff as if you have more than a couple of deuces and fives." Grogar growled.

"By royal order the deuces are now wild, so at worst I have a flush," Celestia stated.

" I prefer chess. Also she cheats in every game she plays." Jer'rahd whispers

"That was an example..." Grogar growled.

"You mean a simile." Celestia corrects.

I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS! THE WORD PLAY MEANS NOTHING TO ME, NOTHING! WHICH IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN FIVE SECONDS.!" Grogar bellowed.

The ground around the pair shook again, but this was less the whole island moving and more something moving under the surface of the black sand beach they were on. Jer'rahd and Celestia looked behind them as the black sand beach erupted in a geyser of sand and seashells. Jer'rahd quickly put a shield over his head to protect himself from the raining sand, though he didn't bother covering Celestia who cursed glaring at him before trying to shake the sand from her wavy mane and her fur.

Rising from the beach were a number of large creatures. Massive undead snakes, hydra, and some sort of tentacled sea creature that made Jer'rahd shudder to look at. All in all there were about a dozen undead aquatic monsters surrounding them on the beach. All of them larger than the biggest land monster Celestia had ever seen. Surrounding the monsters were countless smaller ones, everything from undead sea life to zombie donkeys and skeletons.

"Well now... I think giant monsters are your thing." Celestia stated looking to Jer'rahd who sighed.

"Fine I got this." Jer'rahd tapped the com in his ear." Jupiter come in."

"Here sir."

"Lock on to this location and give a full salvo on the beach."

"I need the clearance code."

"Firm Crescent Plot." Jer'rahd stated.

"Seriously?" Celestia rolled her eyes.

"Confirmed, now you get to see what fine Griffon Engineering can do."

"Breezy fire the damn things." Jer'rahd rolled his eyes his horn glowing as a series of green shields form a box around Celestia and himself.

"You think a simple shield will save you! KILL THEM!" Grogar yelled as the swarm of monsters rushed forward.

====================================================

[Gallopagos shoreline]

Colonel Talia looked out over the sea, the rail bridge to the main land leading off to the horizon before her. The island that appeared was just out of sight, though the rail bridge had been barricaded at this end and a small portion of the Galopagos Guard had been posted here on this side of the island. There were small patrols along the beach on all sides of the island with the main brunt of the forces stationed in the middle on high alert, ready to rush to whatever side of Gallopagos a possible attack could come from.

She and Elecktra were in charge of the whole situation along with a few others that Regent Kaisur had found worthy of holding a high rank in the Guard here. The civilians had all moved to shelters, though Talia doubted they really needed to. After the attack of Tirek the defenses and evacuation plans of the island had been the top priority and even if something like Tirek attacked again, he wouldn't make it far.

Of course that was just the islands defenses...

Darkness enveloped the Kirin as she looked up to the sky. The entire beach as well as much of the shore town being cast in shadow. The whirl of engines was barely heard despite the amount of power and lift that was needed by the thing to keep it aloft.

Talia narrowed her eyes as she stared up at the armored underside of the beast. Bright blue lettering graced the bow of the craft.

CVN-75, HMS Jupiter.

To call it an airship would be like compareing a bath toy to a freighter that shipped other freighters. The craft itself was it's own city, one with two separate postal codes. Yet despite having the crew of a small city, close to a thousand strong all crew members were Guard trained, from the piolets right down to the latrine cleaners. The ship itself was finished earlier this year and this was the first combat it had seen.

The technology holding it aloft was a mix of Griffon technologies and Pony magical know how It boasted two hundred and thirteen decks, twenty mess halls, individual quarters for every member of the crew, plus some extra, a mini mall, several gyms, a full sized pool, and two movie theaters, and that wasn't even half the ship!

The rest was made up of supply rooms, armories, intelligence gathering areas and the twenty six crystal powered mage engines that kept the beast aloft. It had redundant systems on top of redundant systems and had a cloud stuffed gas bag above it made out of synthetic dragon hide. It could lose all but one engine and the gas bag and still stay aloft. It was the greatest technological marvel ever built on Equss.

And of course it was built for war.

The armament alone was to make the one or two groups who still had problems with Equestria and the Griffons hold their tongues. Each side had exactly three hundred mage canons mounted with eighty ballista and catapults mounted on the main deck. Included in this payload were a number of experimental armaments that were still in the testing phase.

She was designed with ship to ship and ship to ground combat in mind as well as a multitude of weather conditions and even HALO operations.

In short the very existence of this thing terrified everyone, Talia would have loved to have been at the last council of races meeting.

Then there was the mad stallion who designed the whole thing, a pony who was currently the Captain of this monster.

Regent Breezy Mist.

=======================

Breezy stood on the bridge of the ship looking over the crew there as they made their final adjustments.

The bridge was a simple affair one raised section in the middle with the captains chair, weapon and communication arrays on both sides with the pilot's seat and the co pilot's seat at the front. There was a 360 view of everything going on outside of the ship from this position transmitted by both magic mirror and a few highly armored windows. The bridge crew consisted of eight members aside from himself though the communications crystals kept him in touch with any where on the ship he wanted.

The cannons were ready, the crew was checking over the math and locking in the target. Breezy stood there stoic, chewing on the end of an unlit pipe a white ships captain hat pulled low over his eyes as he regarded everything. He wore a dark blue and red trimmed long coat that had slits in the back for his wings and a white pair of pants with red stripes. He would have grown a beard for this but his wife said no.

His eyes shifted as he looked over the bridge, frowning a little as his wife shifted in his Captains chair clearly board. Despite her currently being the regent lord of all the Griffons, this was Breezy's ship, he had imagined it and with the help of the overflowing coffers of Equestria he had built it and refilled the drained and destroyed coffers of the Griffon Empire. To the coin counters at least, he was a hero.

"Sir, target is locked, we are ready to fire on your order." one of the Ensigns called back.

Breezy took the pipe out of his mouth and grinned wide. He had been waiting for this since the Jupiter had become air born, a chance to prove this was no waste of money and of course, to listen to his baby roar...

"Fire." Dusty said with a wave of her claw.

"No wait!" Breezy yelped, though it was too late.

=======================================

The sea under the ship, for lack of a better word, buckled. A massive trough of sea foam and water spread out as the concussive force of two hundred mage cannon fired at once. There was no sound for a few breaths and Talia wondered if something went wrong.

Then she and the other Guard with her were bowled off their hooves and tossed back across the beach as the report of the cannons sounded like a thunder clap going off inside their ears. The sonic burst was enough to shatter all the windows and some walls of the beach front houses that dotted the area. The ship it self was pushed back, engines whining to keep it in the same spot in the sky or at least level. Talia watched a shadow race away from the ship tearing across the sea as the amount of shells fired cast the ocean into a brief shade.

" By the stars... over kill much?" Talia cursed.

"WHAT?" one of the Guards with her shouted.

==================================================

[Tamberlane ]

Ten seconds after the volley was fired there no longer was a beach.

Well there was a beach, just not on this side of the island except for a small patch under Celestia and Jer'rahd held there by the box of a shield. Every thing on the outside of the green box and yellow shield was gone, little more than fire, glass slag, and rushing sea water that quickly doused the fires. The train cars, the monsters, the out lying structures of the island were all, no more.

Jer'rahd winced a little as he glanced down seeing nothing but seawater rushing in to flood in space left by the lack of beach. He blinked, certain it was flooding in over some sort of massive white stone that had been under the sand, cracked and pitted from age. The water covered it before he got a good look and he became ill trying to look through the deep water.

Grogar on the other hand was staring out of his shield from where he fell back on his flank. The Capricorn was showing his first signs of fear, or he was simply in awe.

"Grogar shut your trap before you swallow a fly." Celestia stated.

"Lord Kaisur come in over?" the com crackled.

"Who is this?" Jer'rahd growled.

"Jupiter sir, First Officer Wing Beat, are you alright sir?" Wing Beat asked.

"I am, though I felt that... also I think perhaps we need to half the volley size next time, that might have been too much." Jer'rahd sighed." My ears are still ringing a bit. Damage report?"

"According to our spotters a few more structures have collapsed on the island and another small swell is coming in, it'll break on the reefs as well as it's smaller than the first one. There is now a very sizable circle shaped inlet on your location. The spotter also noticed some sort of white stone work under the sand after the blast cleared and before the seawater rushed in. It didn't seem damaged by the attack.

"I saw that too, where's the Captain?"

"Arguing with his wife sir, she ordered us to fire before he had a chance too and since she's our Regent, her orders override his. He wasn't happy. They are probably going to fight again then hide in a closet or something to try and make another egg." Wing Beat sighed, Jer'rahd could hear the Griffon's eyes rolling from here. Breezy and Dusty were the poster foals for dysfunctional relationships. Still if any one tried to tell them other wise the pair would turn on the naysayer, better to just let them be.

"Figures, there's no more beach on this side and the train cars are no longer recoverable. We're moving to secondary coordinates. To much water here." Jer'rahd grumbled making a path of his shields to the nearest beach, dropping the rest of as he and Celestia walked over them. He paused glancing back to Grogar who was still staring at where the island used to be.

"You coming goat? I want to see what else you might try before you just give up." Jer'rahd called.

Grogar snapped out of it glaring at the two of them. " I have not yet begun to fight." he snapped.

"Well good. This would be a dull trip otherwise. Keep it interesting." Celestia scoffed as she and Jer'rahd walk around the shield to the undamaged beach on another side of the yellowy shield.

========================================================

[Canterlot Castle]

"Seriously?" Starfall deadpanned, rubbing her temples with her hooves.

"Yes sir." The Guard stated glancing to the side as Guard Captain Peach Blossom beat his head into a wall while cursing to himself.

"And when exactly did you think to tell us about this intruder?"Starfall sighed.

The pair of them had been sitting at a desk set up in the throne room before the twin thrones of night and day. They could have had an office some where to deal with everything, but Starfall remember Rhede setting up something like this and thought it fitting to do the same.

"As soon as we determined that we were unable to stop her. Sir." the Guard answered. The soldier in question was a purple Earth pony stallion with a red mane and a cutie mark of a apple with a pair of spears crossed behind it.

"And when was that Lieutenant Orange?" Peach Blossom asked his head resting against the pole.

"From the time she burst out of the room wearing Guard Captain Kaisur's old armor to now, around thirty minutes. We have tried a number of plans to stop her including some anti gravity spells and knock out clouds. She countered each of them and is clearly a skilled spell caster. We have some other... more exstream plans, but I decided to come speak with you first as there are some... discrepancies, about her that we are watching."

"Explain." Starfall stated.

"First off aside from the door she has not damaged anything else in the castle, nor has she attempted to harm any one who has not stood in her way, and even those that did were simply moved aside, albeit at a fairly high rate of speed so there have been a few minor injuries. Second after she vacated the room we investigated and found one of the artifacts inside had been activated, a magic mirror. There are no other ways to enter the room aside from the door and it was still mage locked. We do not have any information on this mirror at the moment, though we are rounding up the team that studied it as we speak. Thirdly the mare seems both lost and highly confused. She encountered one of our Changeling Guard and spent at least five minutes asking her questions, but she's all but ignored the other Guards including the Kirin."

"Has any one gone up and asked her what she wanted yet?" Peach Blossom sighed.

"Yes sir. I did myself in fact. All she would say is she was searching for something , though she did ask if the Element's of Harmony had been lost again. She doesn't seem to be very focused on stealth or subtlety. It seems she is looking for the Element's of Harmony, in particular the Element of Magic from what I deduced. She did not believe me when I informed her the Element's had been moved from New Canterlot for safe keeping, nor did she seem very happy that I might be telling the truth. Also she didn't seem to know why it was called New Canterlot. I also believe she thinks she is on some sort of time limit, as she tends to rush a bit faster every time she gets distracted. She eventually demanded to speak with Princess Celestia. I suppose the conversation might have gone on further, but she was distracted by one of the Crystal Guard. She treated him much like the Changeling and she was still asking questions when i came here to report sir."

"Why does something like this have to happen when we are in charge?" Peach Blossom sighed.

"Honestly I'm surprised it's just this. Lieutenant go find her again and guide her here. I'll have a word with her. With how she's acting it doesn't seem like she's a threat at the moment and I'd like to defuse any situation before there becomes one."Starfall ordered.

"Sir are you sure that's wise? We have no idea what she is capable of or what she wants the Element of Magic for."

"It'll be fine. She's just wearing Jer'rahd's old armor. There's weaknesses in that old thing that can be exploited if she decides to try something and at worst we can simply ask her to wait for Celestia to get back. Send the reserchers in here when you find them as well I'm sure they have questions about the mirror, if that is where she came from."Starfall continued.

"Also round up any Changeling Guard, Elk, and Crystal Guard and have them stationed here. If she's curious about them she might not know what they are capable of and that might make her more hesitant." Peach Blossom added.

"Yes sir"

=============================================

[Nine months ago, Sweet Apple Acres.]

Fluttershy smiled as she watched Dawn dart around in the forest around her. The little Kirin poking her nose into everything thing. There were more than a few birds and Squirrels she would have to sooth later after the little Kirin got to close to their nests. She was currently following along after a caterpillar that was making it's way over a fallen branch. Fluttershy expected that interest to last a few seconds at best.

Fluttershy had invited the little Kirin along on her trip to the forest. While her own three little ones had their chores to do, they also knew where their mother was going and didn't want to bother her.

Dawn had no such knowledge of the trip and was overly excited to be heading into the Everfree Forest, even if it was only just inside the closest edge.

The Butter yellow pegasus trotted along slowly watching Dawn chase after a butterfly with a small smile. Her own foals had grown a little past this stage since getting their cutie marks, though now they were more focused on finding out what their marks really meant. Not like it wasn't obvious to every one else.

Appleblossom's cutiemark was was a book and inkwell. Given some of the stories she told and the imagination she had, she was almost destined to be a great writer.

Buttercup was always the more rough and tumble of the trio, usually the most gruff and angry. Though Fluttershy knew how sensitive he actually was. His cutiemark was a small bunny with a injured paw. While it confused more than a few others, she knew he went out of his way to help any injured animal he came across. He put himself at risk more than a few times trying to help one. Given his interest in treating them and all she had taught him. He was going to be a excellent animal doctor, despite how hard he tried to hide his softer side from the others.

Butterscotch's was a surprise. The meekest of the trio, she was often thought to be the voice of reason in their capers. Though imagine every one's surprise when it was revealed she was also the mastermind behind many of them. Her cutiemark was a neatly filled pencil case with a ruler. She tended to almost lead and guide the others without making it seem she was in charge. And she expressed great interest in what Cheerilee did. She would clearly become a teacher.

While Fluttershy was thrilled her foals had grown up so much, there was also a part of her that wished that they would have stayed small a little longer. Taking in the twins helped curb that feeling a little, but even they had grown up enough to no longer be hanging around her all the time. It was one reason she was always happy to foal sit for the others. Rynthia, Elusive, and Dawn were still at the age where everything was a curiosity to them. She liked that, despite how loud and rambunctious they got at times.

Rynthia was with her brothers under the watchful gaze of Applejack back at the farm, which left just the two of them walking through the forest the last of the leaves falling, though the air had not yet gotten to the bone tapping chill that announced winter had come fully. Most of her forest friends had already flown south or gone into hibernation for the winter. She liked to visit this place when she could, but there were two days she always came out here, rain or shine. His birthday, and the day he died.

The forests edge gave way to a small clearing with a fair sized grassy hill in the middle. No matter the time of year the hill was always green and small flowers grew all over it. The area had been heavily enchanted by Twilight with a little help from Princess Celestia and Discord even.

She heard Dawn gasp loudly as they approached the hill.

She smiled enjoying this part every time as dozens of little faces poked their heads up out of hidden burrows and nests to watch them as they approached. Fluttershy shivered a little at the sheer adorableness of the bunny sanctuary's residents. Many of them came out to greet her, being old enough to remember her last visit here. Most shied away from Dawn, despite the filly's attempts to remain calm, something Fluttershy was unsure that the little Kirin was capable of.

Fluttershy dipped her wings a little, brushing a few of the bunnies with her wing tips petting them softly as she smiled, nodding lightly to Dawn to follow her up the hill. She glanced to her left as one of the larger white bunnies reared up and pawed at her white and black striped wing getting a small giggle from the pegasus mare.

At the top of the hill was an apple tree, a gift from Applejack to offer shade to the grave site. The grave itself was a surprisingly simple affair. A life sized statue made by the Pie family in his likeness and a small plaque on the base.

Fluttershy could recite the words from memory, she had been here enough for the carved memorial to be burned into her mind. But she came up here to read them every time.

'Here lies Angel Bunny, Hero of Equestria.'  
'Savior of Cloudsdale, Veteran of the War of the Gods'  
' May he remain forever in our hearts.'

Fluttershy sighed as she read the inscription feeling her tears whell up in her eyes as they always did when she came here.

"Angel Bunny had been my companion almost since I first came to Ponyville. I had found him in the remains of a nest that had been attacked by something. His siblings and mother were dead, I had thought he was too, but imagine my surprise when the little pink thing started moving." Fluttershy explained as Dawn looked at her questioningly at the tears. "I took him home and did my best to take care of him. He was the first animal I rehabilitated on my own. I suppose I made a mistake here and there as I never did manage to release him to the wild, not like he ever wanted to go back to the woods anyway."

Fluttershy sat down and pulled off her saddle bags offering a carrot from it to Dawn, motioning for her to offer it to one of the bunnys carefully.

"He stuck with me for far longer than he should have. He was a very old bunny by the time he finally went to sleep for the last time. Really it wasn't long after Tirek's attack that he passed on. It was because of him leading the other animals that as many ponies from Cloudsdale survived as they did. Remind me to take you up there to see the monument they made for him when they rebuilt the city. It's huge, he of course hated it." Fluttershy smiled softly. " My little grumpy bunny..."

Dawn frowned tearing up as well, though despite the fact one of the bunnies was chewing on the carrot she had in her claw her watery eyes were on Fluttershy.

"I dun like being sad, why did you bring me here..." Dawn pouts...

"Oh... I'm sorry. I forgot about that. Still though. There are always going to be sad times in life. No matter how much you want other wise..."Fluttershy reached out stroking the orange Kirin's back with her yellow wing. " It's why you need to hold on to the happier moments in life. The ones full of joy and laughter, so that when the bad times come you can remember those things and know that not everything is bad and you will realize it will get better. I mean look."

Fluttershy swept out her zebra colored wing to the field and the countless bunnies dotting the hill watching the intruders and going about with their little bunny lives.

"I was beside myself when Angel Bunny died. I had known him longer than any of my other friends except Rainbow Dash."

Dawn stared at Fluttershy, her lower lip sticking out as she pouted, on the verge of tears as well.

"I brought you out here because I enjoy this place. I thought you might as well." Fluttershy tried to placate.

"Why would I like a place after a story like that?" Dawn flopped to the ground scaring off the bunny she had been feeding.

"Oh dear this is a bit harder than I thought it would be..." Fluttershy fretted a moment her ears lowering before she blinks suddenly looking back at a small caramel colored bunny gnawing on the end of her tail. She smiles softly at that." Because despite how sad I feel knowing that Angel Bunny is gone. This place makes me happy. It's full of life and joy. Many of these bunnies are actually Angel Bunnies children, or grand children... or great great great... well you get the idea , bunnies are a ...'active' lot."

Dawn blinked confused.

"There are always going to be sad things happening in your life. When that happens you need to remember all the good times. The laughter and the joy you had and it will help make the bad times more bearable. It won't take away the pain... though it may lessen it."

Dawn frowned.

"Don't be like that. You're a happy little foal. Laughter can cure a great many things. It's not always about being funny." Fluttershy smiled softly reaching out to scoop Dawn up and hug the suddenly very squirmy orange Kirin.

"I dun like being sad..." Dawn pouts. " Dun like when anybodys sad."

"I know sweetie. But it can't be helped some times... Come on. Lets see if any of the warrens have any baby bunnies in them." Fluttershy smiled as she gained the little Kirin's interest again.

=====================================================

[Manehatten early evening]

Bray stood looking up at the sky. The sun had yet to budge and that worried him immensely. The moon had risen, briefly and then quickly sulked off back over the horizon as if it was ashamed it showed up early. The few ponies that he had been around when it happened didn't seem that concerned with the effect so Bray was forced to conclude it was normal. Despite one or two ponies running around screaming about the end of the world.

That was closer than they thought however.

Bray looked down and smiled. He was partially hidden under a cloak , though he could feel his new leg shifting and adjusting, slowly turning into a perfect replacement of his lost limb. A place like this had power to it. A power that was helping to speed up his recovery. A power that expanded his senses and told him the troublesome mare was no where to be found.

The grave yard was dark and quiet, relatively speaking. Despite the sun the place was in shadow. A massive steel mill rose at the edge of the graveyard and soared into the sky. The titanic brick walls surrounded three sides of the small graveyard. It was barely a forth of a block and to the casual observer it had perhaps maybe eighty to a hundred plots in it.

This was fully incorrect however. Bray could feel the number of dead in this place was closer to three or four hundred. The factory had been built over much of the grave yard, likely without the locals knowledge. But that wasn't the biggest surprise. Deep under that even was something even more exciting.

A mass grave. The number of spirits there was nearly beyond his ability to count. They had all been killed, an attempt had been made to cremate them and then they were buried together in a massive pile of bone and ash. Armor and gear had been laid to rest with them. A dumping ground for the dead that was long forgotten as the city grew larger and spread out over the land that the bodies had been laid to rest in.

They had been there. Perhaps for a thousand years, their souls in torment and filled with rage. They called to him, a siren song of anger and hate.

All of it was directed at the ponies of this city.

Bray knew what they were. He had encountered these creatures before, though they had been much more primitive then, the armor was metal rather than the wood and hide he had seen them with. Green skinned with massive tusks, bulging muscles and a creed of 'might makes right'. With how many where here it was clear this place had once been a battle ground.

Bray grinned wide as he poured necromantic energy into the earth. The dead on top of the mass grave would rise first, and would protect him while he raised the army that lay beneath his hooves. He could feel the angry souls screaming and raring to rush out and finish what they started in destroying the city so long ago.

Bray was going to make sure the Orcs got their second chance at taking Manehatten.

=====================================================  
[ Crystal Empire ]

" Sis! You here!?" Pip shouted pushing open the door and poking his nose into Berry's dorm room.

The pair of them had spent the last few hours speaking with a few ponies and trying to get a magical addition to their group for the purposes of studying what was going on. The pair of them both believed that it would all be fixed on Twilight or Luna's return, but there were issues cropping up now with the nightmares so they needed to find some one who knew more about the dream world then they did. Which unfortunately was harder than it sounded. Most scholars didn't bother with dream magic past making sure they didn't get nightmares. Of course judging by the looks on some of them their spells were not working very well lately.

The pair of them hadn't really had any nightmares, though that was mostly due to both Scootaloo and Pip being lucid dreamers. Pip from practice with his mother and Scootaloo from a great deal of effort after some nightmares she had as a foal. Now that they knew what to look for it was fairly obvious that there were a large number of ponies and Griffons suffering from sleep deprivation and restless nights.

Pip perked his ears as he looked around Berry's lab. She should be out of class and the door was unlocked.

"Look at this mess." Scootaloo stated reaching up to scrape a bit of what looked like mashed corn off the wall. " What happened in here?"

"I find it's better not to ask unless you really want an explanation, have a lot of time to kill or want to get dragged into a lesson." Pip sighed almost fondly recalling the days when his sister didn't talk.

Scootaloo poked her head into the side bed room looking around before waving a hoof over to Pip. " Found Beryl. Looks like he's napping, peacefully at that."

"Ma said other races dreams tend to be different. Changelings, Zebras, Griffons, and Elk are close enough to ponies that dream walking is easy with them. Dragons, Diamond Dogs, and strangely enough Sea ponies have completely different mind sets and she wasn't even sure they dreamt at all."

"That is as fascinating as it is boring." Scootaloo grumbles, still annoyed their sexy time was on hold for the foreseeable future.

"Found her." Pip states softly pushing open the door to the kitchen showing off Berry standing in the middle of the room with a half eaten pastry floating in the air beside her. The mare seemed to have been getting a snack when she fell asleep mid act.

Pip sighed rolling his eyes as Scootaloo stared at the frozen mare. The dark furred unicorn looked like she was in mid step though soft snores escaped her mouth along with pastry crumbs.

"Did she fall asleep eating a danish?" Scootaloo asked in awe.

"She did... not the first time either. She gets so wrapped up in study and her ideas that she'll randomly fall asleep when she hits her limit. She used to just collapse where ever she stood , though it seems now her muscle memories gotten better." Pip grumbles.

"Would have loved to have been able to sleep in formation like this back in training."Scootaloo grumbled.

" I told you I would show you how." Pip grinned. It's not that hard to get a quick nap in while hurrying up to wait."

"So what now?"

"Lets have a look at the books she has to see if she has anything that might help. After that we just wait for her to wake up."

"Lovely … studying." Scootaloo bemoaned.

========================================================

[Crystal Empire Playroom.]

"Does the book say anything at all?" Glimmer asked.

"No cause books don't talk." Dawn taunted getting a pillow to the face from Glimmer for her joke.

"Nothing past what we already found out." Elusive sighed.

"The spell I cast gave us a lucid dreams, but the Tantabus is strong, so it … insinuates?...implies...?" Rynthia muttered.

" Seems." Shin commented getting a sigh from the Zebra.

"Did you find anything out about your necklace?"Talon asked looking through another book.

Rynthia sighed picking up a piece of paper with a image on it drawn in crayon. A simple silver disk with a pair of scales embossed in gold in the middle of it. There were random designs on the empty space around the scales, though they clearly were only there to fill in the blank spaces and draw more attention to the scale in the middle. The chain attached to it was a simple silver link necklace. Rynthia couldn't recall anything being on the back of it , but she didn't remember if she had looked or not, the dream was already rather fuzzy.

" Should we tell some one about this? I think this is way beyond anything we can deal with." Elusive sighed.

"I say no. No ones going to believe a foal..." Glimmer sighed. " And even if we did convince one or two adults the moment it came up that they found out about the problem from a six year old, they'd get ignored. That's been pretty clear with how some of the ponies and nobles around here act."

"Daddy wouldn't do that." Dawn muttered.

"But neither father nor mother are available." Rynthia grumbled.

"Both my moms would. " Sighed Elusive." I know they care about me, but given that neither of them seem to care that I don't want to learn magic or be a scholar. I doubt they'd believe something like this without proof. Best case Mother turns it into a research study for a few weeks."

"I expect the same from my parents. They would accuse me of over thinking my dreams to find some sort of logic in them rather than just accept dreams mean nothing. " Talon admitted. "In their defense they are usually right in that I try and find a reason for everything and over think everything."

"They don't believe or trust me any way so why bother?" Shin muttered. " I heard them. Most of them know I'm just a foal and they still hate and fear me..."

The others look over at Shin with a bit of worry.

"Bugs, death, Kirin, and …. cheese..." We know of our fears, but not much of yours and Rynthia's." Perhaps that would help us some how if we did." Talon suggests.

"Mine is simple. I fear that those who say I will become like the Zebra gods of old will be right. That I will bring nothing but hate and suffering." Rynthia grumbled not even trying to rhyme.

"Mmm..." Shin responds clinging tighter to Glimmer's side.

"The Changelings have a hive mind..." Elusive commented his ear twitching as he thought back on what he had been taught. " So that means when you say they don't trust you... "

"You've actually heard them saying it." Talon finished.

Glimmers eyes widen at that and she pulls her little brother a bit closer with her wing.

"I trust you Buggy." Dawn stated suddenly petting the little bug on the head. " Unless it's with cookies, then not so much."

"Dawn last I recall you are the one not to be trusted with food." Talon rolls his eyes.

"Or anything else for that matter. She ate my rock collection..." Elusive grumbled.

"It is your fault you left them out, tasty gems are what dragons dream …...after... for?"Rynthia frowned.

"About." Shin giggled a little.

"So it's just the six of us then?" Talon points out.

"Indeed." Talon added.

"We've got three hours until dinner then an hour or two after that before bed time. We need to figure out something before then." Glimmer points out.

"Save a little fluffy thing and the world." Dawn grinned." We got this."

"Yeah." Shin muttered.

"A little more confidence would not be a bad thing Shin." Elusive stated. "We can handle this."

"I certainly hope that it does happen that way, given we all sleep , we may not have a …... voice... vote?" Rynthia stammered.

"Say." Dawn suggested.

"Dang it." Rynthia growled. 


End file.
